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The former beauty queen is suing the former minister.
A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, said Nigeria’s ambassador to Spain, Bianca Ojukwu lied when she said in a statement that she had never known him, either in public or privately.
Mr. Kayode was responding to PREMIUM TIMES inquiries Friday after a publication emerge in the Thisday newspaper where Ms. Ojukwu’s lawyers, Wall Street Attorneys, threatened to commence legal action against the former minister.
According to the advertorial, Mr. Kayode had claimed in a post on social media while writing under the heading ‘Neither Tribalist nor a Hater’ that he had had intimate relations with the widow of the late Biafran war lord, Odimegwu Ojukwu.
“I was not a tribalist when I had a long standing and intimate relationship with Miss Bianca Onoh,” Mr. Fani-Kayode wrote.
Ms. Ojukwu’s maiden name is Onoh.
“Our client has never met you, does not know you in person and has never had any official or private relationship with you how much more, ‘a long-standing and intimate relationship.’
“Our client is therefore, outraged by your bizarre and scandalous allegation and the numerous mails and telephone calls she has received from friends, relations and admirers who are equally embarrassed and who seek to confirm the veracity or otherwise of your false and reckless publication,” Ms. Ojukwu’s lawyers said in their statement.
However, Mr. Fani-Kayode has countered this claim.
“I woke up to find a letter published as an advertorial in Thisday, purportedly written by ambassador Bianca Ojukwu threatening to sue me for mentioning her in my article, and claiming that she has never met me before.
“She also said that I was being malicious. The matter has of course been referred to my lawyers. Ordinarily, I would not have said a word about this because I sympathise with her for whatever she may have been going through. However, now that she has put it in the public realm, I am compelled to respond,” he said.
Speaking further, Mr. Fani-Kayode said, “On the assertion that I never knew her and that we were never friends, I think this is false and I ask, why would I lie?
“The public evidence is to the contrary, I would not want to say anything to embarrass her because that will be ungentlemanly. I sympathised with her situation then and I expressed regrets about the fact that my statements about her were misconstrued.”
In the Thisday advertorial, Ms. Ojukwu’s lawyers, however, rubbished and rejected what they termed as Mr. Fani-Kayode’s “lame and halfhearted attempt” at a clarification of his “false and malicious allegations.” The “clarification” was published in the Leadership Newspaper on August 17.
“In the circumstances, we demand, on the instruction of our client that you submit to her a clear and unqualified apology and retraction published in The Sun and Thisday newspapers in addition to having the retraction published online,” they countered.
“Take note that should you fail to tender the apology and publish a retraction of your false and malicious publication, seven days after your receipt of this demand notice, our further instructions are to seek appropriate redress in court. And that shall be without further recourse to you. Be properly guided,” Ms. Ojukwu’s lawyers warned.
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