The UberFacts tweet detailing the travails of Nigeria’s President-elect Bola Tinubu, where he was ordered to forfeit $460,000 as proceeds from heroin trafficking, has garnered over 20 million views on Twitter.
The Quest Times reports that on Monday, April 10, 2023, UberFacts tweeted to its 13.5 million followers that, “In 1993, Bola Ahmed Tinubu surrendered $460,000 to the US government after a Chicago court found the income came from heroin trafficking.”
In 1993, Bola Ahmed Tinubu surrendered $460,000 to the US government after a Chicago court found the income came from heroin trafficking pic.twitter.com/aRzrTXJtl4
— UberFacts (@UberFacts) April 9, 2023
The tweet instantly went viral, becoming one of the most engaged tweets on UberFacts handle and also Twitter with 39,200 retweets, 53,300 likes with over 11,000 replies and quotes from Twitter users.
Also another popular US-based viral Twitter handle @DailyLoud also picked up the report on Tinubu.
It tweeted, “In 1993, Bola Ahmed Tinubu surrendered $460,000 to the U.S. government after a Chicago court found the income came from packing and shipping heroin.”
The tweet has garnered 6 million views, 30,000 retweets, 37,000 likes with over 10,000 quotes and replies.
Tinubu’s election as Nigeria’s next leader is being challenged in courts by his opponents who insist that the vote was plagued with irregularities.
The wealthy politician has insisted through his spokespersons that he was never convicted for drug trafficking, and that law enforcement in the US apologised to him for dragging his name into the case.
He has also said that the $460,000 forfeiture was tax remittance.