A former presidential aide, Reno Omokri, has urged Nigerians to leave him out of the controversy surrounding Senator Natasha Akpoti’s recent allegations against Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
Senator Akpoti had accused Akpabio of sexual harassment, a claim that has dominated media discussions for days.
Following her allegation, some Nigerians recalled an incident involving Akpoti and Omokri in 2014, drawing parallels between the two cases.
Addressing the matter in a statement posted on his X page on Saturday, Omokri clarified his past encounter with Akpoti and pleaded to be left out of the current issue.
“I have been inundated with calls from almost all major media outlets in Nigeria seeking my reaction to Senator Natasha Akpoti’s accusations against the Senate President. Many referenced a past allegation she made against me, which was similar to her current claims against Akpabio,” Omokri wrote.
He expressed frustration over being drawn into the controversy and stated that he preferred to put the matter to rest for the sake of his family.
Omokri explained that his altercation with Akpoti stemmed from a social media incident where he rejected a woman’s advances, declaring his loyalty to his wife.
According to him, the woman was a friend of Akpoti, who then accused him of sexual harassment at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa during a reception for then-Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in May 2014.
Omokri maintained that he had no knowledge of the truth behind Akpoti’s allegations against Akpabio, as he was not present when the alleged incident occurred.
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The statement read: “Unfortunately for Senator Akpoti, during those dates, I was sent to the United States of America as President Jonathan’s special envoy. I met and was photographed with multiple U.S. officials, including State Department officials, in Washington, D.C.
“I then published a First Class British Airways ticket and my passport (which was a different class of passport from the regular Nigerian passport and requires a special kind of stamp), proving that I was not in Nigeria on the dates Senator Akpoti alleged I sexually harassed her.
“After I published that evidence, Miss Natasha Akpoti, as she then was, deleted every trace of her allegations against me and the video she had made insulting me, my wife and my newborn daughter.
“As I was pondering the next steps to take, a very influential and respectable man from my ethnic nationality, reached out to a prominent Christian clergyman, who mediated between him and I. The gentleman greeted me in my mother tongue, Itsekiri, and was most gentlemanly and expressed regrets over the incident, and I was prevailed on by the clergyman to reach an out-of-court settlement.
“Thereafter, I dropped the matter since my name had been cleared, and the out-of-court settlement was adequate.
“That is the extent of my encounter with Senator Natasha Akpoti. I hope the media can now leave me alone, as I am reluctant to grant any interviews or get entangled in this matter, seeing as I have the highest respect for the man who reached out to me to settle the matter.
“As for the Senate, I have the highest respect and confidence in that institution and its leadership and believe that the right thing to do would be to institute a Senate investigation by the appropriate committee to determine the veracity of the present allegations.”