It is mischievous to call President Bola Tinubu a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) asset, a former presidential aide, Mr Reno Omokri, has said.
Reacting to a trending social media claim, sparked by one David Hundeyin X post, that the CIA had confirmed that the president was its intelligence asset, the former presidential aide said the claim showed the claimants’ ignorance of the intelligence agency’s tradition.
“That is a preposterous lie. The CIA never constructively, effectively, or unintentionally confirmed or affirmed that President Bola Tinubu was a CIA asset,” he stated in a statement on Wednesday.
Hundeyin had claimed that the CIA’s non-committal response to his organisation’s enquiry about President Tinubu’s alleged relationship with it was a confirmation that the president was its informant.
However, Omokri said this conclusion displayed Hundeyin’s ignorance of the CIA’s processes, explaining that such enquiries and response were common place in the US.
“The CIA is notorious for denying these FOIA requests using the same language, which was quoted today by some persons who have concluded that the verbiage somehow confirms that President Bola Tinubu is a CIA asset,” he said.
He cited several cases, including Connell v. CIA, ACLU v. CIA, National Security Archive v. CIA, Federation of American Scientists v. CIA, and Freddom Watch, Inc. v. CIA, in which the spy agency refused to disclose requested information for the same reason.
He said, “In these cases, Nigerians can study the reasons the CIA gave for refusing the FOIA requests of these individuals and agencies. They will see that similar language was used that can be twisted to mean what the writer wants the public to think it is saying. Even if you file a FOIA request as a U.S. citizen or resident, the CIA will likely deny it.”
Omokri cautioned Nigerians against paying attention to mischief makers and contended that the document upon which Hundeyin and others based their claim did not confirm or suggest that Tinubu was a CIA asset by any stretch of the imagination.
