Babafemi Ojudu, a former senator and journalist, has revealed how President Bola Tinubu secretly recorded a Jewish lawyer who exposed the looting orchestrated by the late military dictator, Sani Abacha.
Ojudu shared this account during an interview with Edmund Obilo while promoting his new book, Adventures of A Guerrilla Journalist.
According to Ojudu, the covert operation occurred in the 1990s when Tinubu was in exile in the United Kingdom.
Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from 1993 to 1998, allegedly looted approximately $5 billion, funneling the funds into foreign accounts in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.
Over the years, the Nigerian government has worked to recover these stolen assets.
Recalling the encounter, Ojudu explained that Tinubu arranged a meeting with the Jewish lawyer who had crucial information about Abacha’s illicit activities and his collaborators.
During the discussion, the lawyer detailed how Abacha siphoned public funds and identified key players, including the Chagoury brothers.
“I was excited as a newsman,” Ojudu said. “The lawyer kept revealing how Abacha was looting and who was assisting him. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take notes and had to memorize the details.”
Ojudu noted that Tinubu excused himself during the meeting to use the bathroom but later disclosed that he had secretly flipped the recording tape to ensure all conversations were captured.
“He flushed the toilet so the lawyer wouldn’t suspect the tape was being changed,” Ojudu recounted.
After the meeting, Ojudu said Tinubu attempted to prevent the story from being published. “When we got back, he slept on the couch, and I took the tape,” Ojudu revealed. “I changed my flight and left early the next morning.”
Despite Tinubu’s warnings about the potential dangers of publishing the story, Ojudu went ahead. “I told him, ‘If they kill me, so be it.’ I returned to Nigeria, shared the tape with my team, and we ran the story. It was a report that shook Abacha’s regime,” he said.
Ojudu described Tinubu as a “strategist” willing to go to great lengths to achieve his objectives.
However, their relationship soured when Ojudu opposed Tinubu’s presidential bid in 2022 and chose not to support him in the 2023 elections.
“My decision not to back him was not a betrayal,” Ojudu stated, underscoring his conviction.
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