Reno Omokri criticises BBC, Sky News, and Deutsche Welle for amplifying Senator Natasha Akpoti’s allegations without verifying her past record of false accusations.
Former presidential aide Reno Omokri has strongly condemned foreign media outlets, including the BBC, Sky News, and Deutsche Welle, for repeatedly giving Senator Natasha Akpoti a platform despite her alleged history of making false accusations against prominent Nigerian politicians.
Omokri recounted how Akpoti falsely accused him of sexual harassment in 2021, following an altercation involving a suspected catfish account offering him unsolicited sexual favours. He said security experts warned him that such tactics were commonly used in Abuja to entrap politically exposed persons.
He provided undeniable evidence, including passport stamps and a British Airways ticket, proving he was not in Nigeria on the date Akpoti claimed the incident occurred. After being confronted with the truth, Akpoti retracted and deleted her allegations.
Omokri further revealed that following the retraction, Akpoti’s husband, Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan, reached out via a three-way call involving a prominent clergyman, pleading for an out-of-court settlement.
Omokri accepted the settlement and was paid a significant amount of money, which was presented as an “offering.”
Questioning Akpoti’s credibility, Omokri noted that she had previously accused another cabinet minister of sexual harassment and was now levelling similar allegations against Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
He argued that the chances of three high-ranking officials all being guilty of the same offence against the same woman were highly improbable.
He described Akpoti as a skilled manipulator who uses tears to gain public sympathy and push false narratives.
He warned international media organisations against taking her allegations at face value, urging them to uphold journalistic integrity by ensuring balanced and fact-based reporting.
Read his full statement below.
Dear British Broadcasting Corporation, Sky News, and Deutsche Welle,
In The Interest of Transparency, Please Balance Your Coverage
Senator Natasha Akpoti, whom you have repeatedly given a platform, falsely accused me of the same offence for which she now accuses Senator Godswill Akpabio in 2021, after an altercation with me involving a lady, suspected (but not proven) of being a catfish account controlled by Senator Natasha Akpoti, offering me unsolicited sexual favours via Facebook, and me telling the woman in question that I was happily married and not interested in a relationship with her or any other woman besides my wife.
When I brought this to the attention of security experts, I was informed that this was a common practice in Abuja, where some unscrupulous persons make such offers to politically exposed persons, such as myself, using beautiful women as fronts to entrap men with compromising photographs. I do not know if this was Miss Natasha Akpoti’s ultimate aim then.
Miss Akpoti, as she then was, only retracted, then deleted her accusations when I proved with unimpeachable evidence, including my passport stamp and a First Class British Airways ticket, that I was not in Nigeria during a May 6, 2014 state banquet for Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, which was the date and time when she falsely claimed I sexually harassed her.
On the contrary, my boss, then President Goodluck Jonathan, had sent me as a Special Envoy to the United States in the heat of the Chibok Girls’ abduction and the ensuing #BringBackOurGirls campaign, which involved then-U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama. From there, I flew to see my children in California.
After retracting her lies and deleting the video she had made levelling her accusations against me and peddling sundry other untruths, her then fiancé, Mr. Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan, now her husband, called me on a three-way call with a major Christian clergyman and appealed to me, as a Pastor, to accept an out-of-court settlement, which I did. I was subsequently paid a considerable amount of money, which was styled as an “offering.”
I am not sure that it serves the public interest of justice to publish Senator Natasha Akpoti’s current allegations against Nigeria’s Senate President without also informing your viewers that this woman has a history of making false and unfounded allegations after altercations with men. She hates losing an argument and has been known for using everything at her disposal, including lies, to get even.
I do not know if her current accusations are true. But you may want to note that besides me, Senator Natasha Akpoti has also accused on video a cabinet Minister of sexual harassment.
I am not a statistician. However, if you ask me, I would suspect that the chances that a former Presidential spokesman, Cabinet Minister, and Senate President all sexually harassed the same woman are slim to none.
The best predictor of future behaviour is past character. Senator Natasha Akpoti is a skilled actor who knows how to cry at will. She has used powerfully convincing tears to gaslight the public as she tried to frame me in the past.
She is articulate and lies effortlessly and persuasively. Natasha Akpoti almost destroyed my life, but for the fact that I am a meticulous record keeper who kept every record from that episode, including meta date records of the call by her husband and the subsequent credit alert (so-called ‘offering’), with the date matching the day of the call.
Consequently, I urge you to be conscious that getting the facts right is the cardinal principle of journalism. In this instance, you appear to have gotten the propaganda right.
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