‘Reject Omokri’: Denge Onoh petitions Senate over envoy nomination
A Nigerian citizen, Denge Josef Onoh, has petitioned the president of the senate, Godswill Akpabio, asking the upper chamber to stop the screening and confirmation of Reno Omokri, one of President Bola Tinubu’s 32 ambassadorial nominees.
In the protest letter dated December 1, 2025, Onoh urged the senate to reject Omokri’s nomination, describing it as a threat to Nigeria’s diplomatic image. He said he was writing “as a concerned citizen, a patriot, and as the former south-east presidential campaign spokesman to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu”.
Onoh argued that Omokri’s “public statements, antecedents, and documented actions” make him unfit for the role of ambassador-designate. He claimed that Omokri’s history of attacks on Tinubu between 2019 and 2023 amounted to “a direct assault on Nigeria’s national interest and international reputation”.
He accused Omokri, who served as an aide to former president Goodluck Jonathan, of “waging a sustained and internationally publicised campaign” against Tinubu. According to him, the nominee repeatedly referred to the president as a “drug lord” and claimed to possess documents linking Tinubu to narcotics trafficking in the United States.
Onoh said Omokri made these allegations on several international platforms, including Arise Television, Channels Television and the BBC Hausa Service. He also cited Omokri’s participation in the #HarassBuhariOutOfLondon protests, which he claimed were later redirected at Tinubu during the 2022–2023 campaign season.
The petitioner also referenced the “Mike Arnold” forgery saga — a document purporting to link Tinubu to drug trafficking in a U.S. court — which was later debunked. He alleged that Omokri promoted the forged document, which he said contributed to Nigeria’s redesignation as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2021.
“To now reward the chief promoter of that forgery with an ambassadorial appointment is to tell the world that Nigeria endorses the narrative that its president is a drug baron,” Onoh wrote.
He added that the Department of State Services (DSS), which screened the nominees, risks losing credibility if Omokri is cleared despite his past statements. According to him, confirming the nominee “casts doubt on the consistency of the DSS vetting system” and could be interpreted internationally as an attempt to “buy his silence”.
Onoh urged senators, particularly those of the ruling APC, to reject the nomination unless Omokri appears before the senate to present the evidence he previously claimed to possess against the president.
“If he fails to produce such evidence, his nomination must be rejected outright,” he said. “Nigeria deserves ambassadors of integrity and loyalty, not merchants of defamation rewarded with national honours.”
He appealed to the 10th senate to “defend the honour of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the office of the president”.
