Blogger and social media influencer, Japheth Omojuwa, has responded to the letter written to him through the lawyer to the former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, demanding an apology for listing her as a director in his company Alpha Reach.
Ezekwesili issued the letter after Buzzfeed published a report that exposed the role Omojuwa and other influencers allegedly played in the social media campaign for the release of a Colombian alleged fraudster, Alex Saab, who has been declared wanted in the United States and currently facing extradition charges in Cape Verde.
Documents circulating online allegedly belonging to Alpha Reach, a company registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in 2012, and believed to have played a role in the Alex Saab campaign, shows Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, and Ezekwesili listed as directors.
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When the documents surfaced, Ezekwesili through her lawyer, Marshal Abubakar, on behalf of Falana and Falana Chambers, demanded an apology from Omojuwa for listing her as a director in Alpha Reach without her permission.
A reply letter signed by Boonyameen Babajide Lawal for Babalakin and Co Legal Practitioners said Omojuwa got consent from both El-rufai and Ezekwesili before listing them as directors in his company.
“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 from Omojuwa’s lawyer partly read.
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Another part of the letter said, “Both Mallam El-Rufai and your client were listed as Directors of Alpha Reach Company Limited when it was registered in 2012, with their full consent. Likewise, our client recalls being seated at the suite of a respected man of God at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, trusting your client with some very personal and painful stories. At a point in our client’s life, your client was his most trusted person and confidant. Some people can attest to this fact, and they will, at the appropriate time and forum.”
On the part of the documents that said Alpha Reach later removed Ezekwesili as director in the company, the letter said it was done when it became certain that she could be appointed minister in the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) in 2015.
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“Clearly, your client is a successful public figure with whom our client had a close relationship. It is reasonable that our client wanted to leverage her reputation to advance the company he promoted. It was not until 2015 when it was certain that HE Mallam El-Rufai was going to become the Governor of Kaduna State and the likelihood that your client could be appointed a Minister by the then President-elect Muhammadu Buhari GCFR, that they both were removed as Directors of the company. You might recall that your client honoured the ruling party’s invitation to deliver a keynote speech at a public forum in Abuja in 2014, and there was a general expectation that she would play a role in President Buhari’s government. Indeed, your client leaned on our client to publish and distribute her speech at the APC forum,” the letter said.
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On Ezekwesili’s request for full disclosure of documents submitted at the Corporate Affairs Commission in the course of registering Alpha Reach, the letter said such will only be made available upon a written undertaking.
“In your letter, you requested full disclosure of documents. Our client is very much willing to disclose documents relating to the period between September 2012 and April 2015, when your client was a Director of the company. However, given how your client and her family shared the letter under reference on social media (in clear demonstration of bad faith) after our client had already acknowledged receiving it, your client and her family could not be trusted not to disclose the company’s sensitive corporate information if it is made available to her. Our client would only make those documents available to your client upon a written undertaking that the documents would be treated with utmost confidentiality,” the letter said.
