Tinubu jets to London, not denied visa

The presidential campaign committee of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has revealed that the presidential candidate of the party, Bola Tinubu has left Nigeria for London.

This was against the speculation that the APC chieftain was denied access to the UK.

Mr Bayo Onanuga, the Director of Media and Publicity of the presidential campaign committee, made this revelation in a statement released on Saturday.

There have been speculations on social media that Tinubu, who have been invited to speak at Chatham House on Monday, was not granted access into the United Kingdom.

Onanuga has also come down on Arise Television for constantly broadcasting an advert of its town hall meeting which the former Governor of Lagos State had refused to be part of.

“We find it shocking and downright anomalous that Arise News continues to broadcast the participation of All Progressives Congress Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in its Presidential Town Hall meeting scheduled to hold on 4 December, 2022 despite our earlier statement that our candidate will not be available.

Onanuga said: “We noticed that Arise News has also been running a campaign on the so-called constitutional duty of the presidential candidates to participate in its debate by dubiously citing section 22 of the Constitution of Nigeria on the obligation of the Mass Media”.

“The same Constitution grants all citizens of Nigeria including, Asiwaju Tinubu the right and freedom of choice and association. The APC Presidential candidate has a right to decide where he goes and events to participate in as he seeks the mandate of Nigerians to be elected as the next President of our country.

“We want to make it abundantly clear again that Asiwaju Tinubu will not participate and will not attend the Arise News Town Hall meeting slated for Sunday, 4 December, 2022 and any other ones it may plan before the February 2023 presidential election.

“The APC Presidential candidate has his own schedule of campaign activities and other engagements within and outside Nigeria. One of such events is his scheduled event for Monday , December 5, 2022 at Chatham House in London where he will speak on Security, Economy and Foreign Policy.

“Asiwaju Tinubu travelled to United Kingdom early today (Saturday) for this earlier scheduled engagement. We want to reiterate for the umpteenth time that no amount of blackmail, intimidation and media bully and innuendos by the owner and management of Arise News will change the position our campaign has taken on this matter”, he stated.