In order to put speculations surrounding the source of the former Lagos State governor’s wealth, Ahmed Tinubu to rest, the Director of Strategic Communication of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Alake, has clarified that he got to know the APC presidential candidate to be wealthy even before he was elected into office.
Alake, while speaking on Channels’ Television interview programme, Sunday Politics, attributed the source of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to investment in the stocks of blue chip companies.
He said that the APC presidential candidate has been trading in stocks since his days in the corporate world.
“What I know is that right from his days in the corporate world, he has been trading in stocks, and he himself said so.
“He has been buying stocks and bonds and all of that. I am not a finance person. So, I am not going to be interested in the nitty-gritty of it all. But I know he has been trading in stocks.
“I know that when you trade in stocks and you are a finance person, you know how to juggle the stock market and all of that. Those who are adept at it know what I am talking about. They wouldn’t start questioning how he made his money from stocks.
“He was buying stocks of blue chip companies and all of that. He was making money and he was spending money. He has been doing all of these years before he got into office.”
“Why people are querying the source of his wealth is because he had been a successful governor of Lagos and a successful politician even after office.
“He is about the only one of the class of 1999 who is at that enviable political height today. He is bound to attract all of these negative comments,” Alake reiterated.
The Director of Strategic Communication APC Presidential Campaign Council stressed that he knew Tinubu to have been spending money and to have been wealthy even before he got into office.
That, to him, was crucial.
“He made his money well before he got into office. I think what is important to Nigerians, really, is to know that this man was not a pauper before he came into office, like some others,” he said.
Asking whether Tinubu owns or has investment in any company in Nigeria, Alake said, “what is my business about the company that he owns in Nigeria? If tomorrow you become like Bola Ahmed Tinubu, why should I be bothering about the companies you own as long as it is not proved that you have taken the money of your state or whatever company you work for?
“It is not proven and you are not indicted in any court of law. Why should I now be bothering my head?
“It is an extraneous issue and, like I always say, pandering to the whims and caprices of those who are jealous and extremely envious and suffering from OCH, obsessive-compulsive hatred, of Asiwaju,” Alake said.
