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| Tinubu and incident of the bullion vans |
If you think the last has been heard of the two bullion vans sighted at the Bourdillon, Ikoyi premises of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2019, you may have to think again.
As a matter of fact, a fresh twist has been added to the controversy surrounding the presence of those bullion vans spotted at Tinubu’s residence on on February 22, 2019, the eve of that year’s presidential election in which the incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari, was elected for a second tenure.
Tinubu is currently the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and it’s common knowledge that he had played a major role in both the 2015 edition when Buhari was first elected and 2019 for his reelection.
On the matter of the bullion vans however, he had derisively dismissed it then, saying he neither owed anybody an explanation or apology, as the content of the vans was nobody’s business.
Hear him then: “Bullion vans? Are those ballot papers? “Excuse me, is it my money or government money? I don’t work for government. I am not in (any) agency of government. Let anybody come out to say I have taken any contract from the government of President Muhammadu Buhari in the last five years. They should prove it. I am on my own, and I am committed to my party. So, even if I have money to spend on my premises. What is your headache?”
However, and in a fresh twist four years later, precisely on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, Organising Secretary of the APC, Ayodele Adewale, claimed that Tinubu’s earlier comments on the matter were mere jokes. According to him, the correct position was that the money vans actually missed their ways (and strolled) into the home of the former governor of Lagos State.
Adewale was guest of ‘The Morning Show’, a breakfast programme of Arise Television, where he said that such a mistake was common and it would not be the first time people would make such mistake.
He tried to buttress his point with an example of when a heavy military equipment mistakenly strode into Nigerian territory and was seized by the authorities.
Hear him: “That bullion van missed its way there, and it was not invited by Asiwaju or anybody. That comment was made jokingly. Reporters met with him, I was there, I was standing not too far and there were a lot of accusations. You know Asiwaju very well. He loves cracking jokes and crack people up most times. And he made that statement. Not that he owns it.
“We’ve seen delivery vans missing road, we’ve seen high equipment vans missing road, we’ve seen heavy military equipment – there was one that missed the road into Nigeria once – in fact the Nigerian government had to seize that armoured tank and all of that. People commit a lot human error. And it was human error by the people that were coming. And I’ve told you that it a mixed identity of address.”
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