Social media influencer, Japhet Omojuwa, has walked back his claim that former Minister, Obiageli Ezekwesili, was never a Director of Alpha Reach, Omojuwa’s PR firm that was linked to a campaign that allegedly pressed for the release a detained Venezualan diplomat, Alex Saab, in Cape Verde.
In a four-page letter dated April 14, 2021, written on his behalf by the law firm, Babalakin & Co, Omojuwa insisted that Dr. Ezekwesili was a Director of the firm and that she in fact gave her consent before being listed as one of the company’s Directors in 2012.
A foreign medium, BuzzFeed, had exposed the role Omojuwa, through his firm, Alpha Reach, and other social media influencers played in the campaign to release Saab, a Colombian, who has been declared wanted in the United States and is facing extradition charges in Cape Verde.
The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, and Ezekwesili had been linked to that firm as Directors.
Both names were later allegedly removed in the buildup to President Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration in 2015 because of the expectation that both would become public servants: el-Rufai a governor, and Ezekwesili a Minister in Buhari’s cabinet.
The former Minister had threatened to sue Omojuwa for impersonation and for using her name without authorisation.
The former Minister had through Femi Falana’s law firm written to Omojuwa, saying she was shocked to learn that she was listed as a Director of the company when contacted by BuzzFeed.
She demanded an apology and full disclosure of the records of Alpha Reach from Omojuwa.
In his April 9, 2021 statement on the matter, Omojuwa had maintained that “Alpha Reach, as an organisation, was not involved in the campaign making the rounds” and that Ezekwesili had never been a part-owner or Director of Alpha Reach.
“Alpha Reach wishes to state that at no time was Dr. Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili a part-owner of Alpha Reach, and she is not a member of the Alpha Reach board. This clarification is necessary because of insinuations being made that she is/was a co-owner of Alpha Reach. Thank you,” Omojuwa had written.
But in a four-page letter dated April 14, 2021 written on his behalf by the law firm, Babalakin & Co, Omojuwa insisted that Ezekwesili was a Director of the firm and that she in fact gave her consent before being listed as one of the company’s Directors in 2012.
“The company was indeed registered in 2012; our client however unequivocally denies your allegations that consent of your client was not sought before she was listed as a Director. Our client sought and obtained your client’s consent before listing her as a Director of the company, based on their close relationship, which you curiously omitted to mention in your letter,” the letter read in part.
“In the interest of completeness and the full disclosure that you requested in your letter, we have set below the basis upon which our client sought and obtained your client’s consent to be listed as a Director of the company to begin with,” his lawyers stated in the letter addressed to Falana & Falana’s Chambers.
In what appears to him taunting Ezekwesili, Omojuwa on his Twitter handle wrote: “Pastor @obyezeks, you served me legal notice publicly, so I was left with no choice but to serve you publicly too.
“PS: I won’t react to the unwarranted provocation from you, your sons & allies. You betrayed my loyalty, service & respect to you, for reasons I don’t understand.”
Omojuwa, through his legal team, had alleged that his erstwhile 10-year close relationship with Ezekwesili deteriorated owing to his refusal to continue to play by his former benefactor’s playbook on and off social media.
