A former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has withdrawn the statement credited to him that he had an intimate relationship with the wife of the late Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain, Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu.
Fani-Kayode had in his article, entitled: “Neither a tribalist nor a hater,” published onNigerianEYE, claimed to have met with Bianca when she was Miss Bianca Onoh at the Cambridge College and had “intimate” relationship with her together with two other Igbo ladies. Fani-Kayode, also a former Minister of Culture, in a statement by his lawyer, Mr. Akinola Babatunde Rotimi, however, said the claim by Bianca that they were not friends and had never met was ‘patently false’.
The former minister, who was also a spokesman of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, insisted that he knew Bianca in the early mid-80s when he was a student at the London and Cambridge Universities respectively.
He noted that they were good friends at the time and had a few mutual friends who are still alive till date.
The statement stated that though he had not seen Bianca for over 25 years, he spoke to her on the phone when her husband passed on last year.
Fani-Kayode had in an article titled: “Neither a tribalist nor a hater,’ published on NE to defend himself over his write-up on the relocation of some Igbo to Anambra State by the Lagos State Government, alleging that he had “a long standing and intimate relationship with Bianca Onoh.”
But Bianca had through an advertorial published in some national newspapers, demanded an apology and a complete retraction of the statement within seven days or she would institute a legal action against the former minister.
The Fani-Kayode statement read:
“Our client knew Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu in the early to mid-80’s when he was a student at London University and Cambridge University respectively.
“They were good friends at the time and they had a few mutual friends who are still alive today. The bizarre, absurd and inexplicable assertion that they were not friends and that Ambassador Ojukwu has never met our client is patently false.
“Though he has not seen her for over 25 years, he spoke to her on the phone when her husband passed on last year. As our client said earlier through his press secretary, some of the words he used to describe his friendship with her in his article titled: ‘A Word For Those Who Call Me A Tribalist’ were indiscreet. He hereby withdraws them.”
It was also gathered from sources close to Fani-Kayode that the former aviation minister was making efforts through emissaries close to Bianca to reach out to her to resolve the disagreement.
The sources said the former minister was concerned that the issue had degenerated and would want a resolution on the misunderstanding.
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