Former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode has rejected claims suggesting he accused President Bola Tinubu of involvement in the murder of late Lagos governorship aspirant Funso Williams.
In a statement shared on X Thursday, Fani-Kayode said SaharaReporters publisher Omoyele Sowore cited remarks he allegedly made over a decade ago to defend himself in a current defamation case.
Sowore reportedly claimed that Fani-Kayode had accused Tinubu of killing Williams, who was murdered in his Ikoyi residence in July 2006. Fani-Kayode insisted that no such allegation was ever made.
“He claimed I said President Tinubu killed Chief Funso Williams in 2003. This is false. I never said that,” Fani-Kayode said.
The former minister clarified that the comment arose during the 2015 presidential election when he served as media director for the Goodluck Jonathan campaign under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
At the time, he had stated: “I am not Funso Williams; I cannot be killed like a chicken,” a remark he has since acknowledged as inappropriate and potentially misleading.
“I made those remarks 11 years ago, and I have long since retracted them. They were inappropriate and could be misconstrued,” he added.
Fani-Kayode described Sowore’s revival of the statement as an act of desperation, arguing that relying on comments from a heated campaign years ago is improper.
He also highlighted his political journey, noting he left the PDP in 2019, joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2021, and played a major role in Tinubu’s 2023 presidential campaign, leading a 250-member media and operations team.
Rejecting attempts to involve Reno Omokri, Fani-Kayode said the former aide had retracted earlier criticisms of Tinubu and now supports the president’s policies.
“For Sowore to try to rope me or Reno into his case to justify his actions is absurd,” he said.