In a publication by Thisday today, Bianca Ojukwu wrote a
letter saying she has never met Femi Fani Kayode before. Isn’t that alarming? In
contrast to what the lawyer and activist said a few weeks ago.
Bianca’s lawyers
have written to Femi Fani Kayode asking him to apologize and withdraw the statement
he made a few weeks back claiming he once had a long and intimate affair with
her many years ago. The letter warns him to either withdraw the statement or
face a lawsuit. Femi has since responded to what many have termed “a threat”. I
am privileged to have a copy of both letters. Read below both letters from
Bianca's lawyers and FFK’s response after the jump…
“We have been briefed and our services retained by
Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain to demand from you an
unreserved apology and a retraction of a false and malicious statement, which
you published online and also caused to be published in the Leadership
Newspaper of August 16, 2013.
"In the said article entitled, ‘Neither a Tribalist nor
a Hater,’ you recklessly alleged, as follows: ‘I was not a tribalist when I had
a long standing and intimate relationship with Miss Bianca Onoh…’, a statement,
which you know is untrue and unfounded, but only calculated to lower our
client’s esteem and damage her national and international reputation.
"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.
“Your apparent lame and half-hearted attempt, as published
in the Leadership Newspaper of 17th August 2013, to clarify your false and malicious
allegation falls far short of a retraction and does not sufficiently address
the damage to our client arising from the widespread dissemination of your
false publication and is therefore unacceptable to our client.
“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.
“Take note that should you fail to tender the apology and
publish a retraction of your false and malicious publication, seven days next
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.”
Chief Femi Fani Kayode's response via his spokesperson - Mr
Bisi Lawal
This morning Chief Femi Fani-Kayode woke up to find a letter
that was published as an advertorial in Thisday Newspaper purportedly by
Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu's lawyer threatening to sue him for mentioning her in
his article and claiming that she has never met him before. She also said that
he was being malicious. The matter has of course been reffered to Chief
Fani-Kayode's lawyers who will now take it up.
Ordinarily he would have not have said a word about this
matter because he sympathises with her for whatever she may have been going
through. However now that she has put it in the public realm Cheif Fani-Kayode
is compelled to formally respond. To the assertion that he never knew her and
that they were never friends he says this is false and he asks why would he
lie? The public evidence is to the contrary. Chief Fani-Kayode would not want
to say anything to embarrass her because that would be ungentlemanly.
He sympathises with her delicate situation and once again he
expresses his regrets about the fact that his statement about her was
misconstrued. We shall just leave it at that.
Signed by Mr. Bisi Lawal on behalf of Femi Fani Kayode
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