YOU MUST READ THIS : EVEN ODUMAKIN CONDEMS THIS : But Sharpedge news, an online publication said on Saturday that the claims were false and that Tinubu obtained the invitation card after paying the sum of $5,000.

Quoting a DNC source, Sharpedge news, explained that the invite that was given to Tinubu was a generic type that similarly went to whoever donated more than $5,000 to the Obama campaign.

The publication said that the invitation did not come directly from US President, Barack Obama.

According to the publication, Obama did not personally extend “a gold card invitation” to Tinubu to attend the Democratic Party convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the US.

“The invitation card sent to Tinubu, the former senator from Nigeria, was generic; and it generally goes from the campaign organisation and not personally from President Obama,” the highly placed source explained to the online agency.

His media aide, Sunday Dare, could not be reached on his mobile phone numbers as he was said to have followed the former governor on the trip.

Meanwhile, former Publicity Secretary of the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), Mr Yinka Odumakin, condemned the development, describing it as an integrity question that has arisen.

“Although I am yet to get details, the news is all over the internet; so my contribution on this issue is based on what is circulating.

“To be candid, it will be a sad development if what the Democratic Party has said is true; how can someone say he or she was personally invited by Obama when actually the reality is that anybody can obtain that kind of invitation upon the payment of the said sum of $5,000?

“One wonders the kind of show off or fame behind such move because it is totally uncalled for and if the motive is to deceive the people by showing what one is not, then it becomes more unfortunate and condemnable in all ramifications; a big integrity question is at play,” the former spokesman of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) told Sunday Tribune.