October 17, (THEWILL) – Natasha Apoti, the 2019 governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party in Kogi State, and Reno Omokri, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, have been at loggerheads with each other for a couple of days now. The war between the two started after a Facebook user, Ahuoyiza Blizzcute, casually made advances at Omokri on Facebook. The lady wrote on his Facebook wall, “Hello handsome, can you be my sugar daddy?”
The post didn’t go down well with Omokri who responded by saying that he could not leave his beautiful wife, whom he likened to an iPhone 13, for the lady who he alluded to being an iPhone 3. He then explained how he declared his undying love for his ‘wife’ at a church in Lalibela, Ethophia. Reno added that leaving iPhone 13 for iPhone 3 was not “sugar daddyism” but “bitter cola daddy”. According to him, he is enjoying a good life because God gave him a good ‘wife.’ Hence, he wouldn’t allow a sheet of paper come between himself and his wife. He went ahead to pray for the lady, that God would give her a man who would love her as he loves his ‘wife.’
Disappointed by his response, Ahuoyiza made another post where she stated that she made the remark jokingly. Despite Ahuoyiza’s explanation, Apoti slammed Reno and reminded him of how he made advances at her during a State House event in 2014. According to the light skinned mother of three, the former presidential aide tried to seek her affection during a state banquet organised in honour of Kenya’s President, Uhuru Kenyatta, when Jonathan was still in office. She added that Omokri was living a boring and bitter life in the United States because he was in asylum and he had no access to his numerous iPhone 2 girlfriends, most of whom he got into Sure P, a social measure established by the Goodluck Jonathan administration to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal. Omokri denied this, insisting that she was making up stories.
He insisted that he was out of the country on the said date and could not have been the one who made passes at her. In a back-and-forth argument, they both began to exchange words as they tried to buttress their claims.
Omokri was the first to respond. He posted screen shots of immigration stamps on his international passports to show that he was not in Nigeria during the period as claimed by Apoti. According to him, he took his annual leave before the banquet and he returned to Nigeria after the event had taken place. He also stressed again that he has an ‘iPhone 13’ at home and wouldn’t be running after ‘Nokia 3310.’
Apoti also responded to his claims by sending him to the gallows. She explained that his response reeked of “selective dementia, deceit and misogynistic prejudice”. She noted that his post shows great inconsistency. She further insisted that Omokri was in Nigeria at the said date, but traveled a month and two weeks after the event. She accused him of failing to prove his innocence and that he lied in his publications about his absence just the way he lied about not making passes at her during the State House event.
Lauretta Onochie, one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s aides, also rose in Apoti’s defence, equally accusing Omokri of inconsistency. She said he stated that his departure date (SOD) was June 23, 2014, but got to the United States on April, 2014. He returned to the country on (SOA) July 23, 2014, which was after President Kenyatta’s visit. The claims were countered by Onochie. She stated that Omokri left the country after Kenyatta’s visit. As he couldn’t have been seen leaving Nigeria on June 23, 2014 and got to the United States of America on April 24, 2014 which shows that he was counting backwards.
Perhaps at a crossroads, Omokri said he intentionally withheld a third page of his passport on the advice of his lawyer so that Apoti would walk into their “trap”. He provided more screenshots of his passport stamp showing when he arrived at San Francisco on April 28, 2014 and the stamp on his return to Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja after his visit abroad.
He got back to Nigeria on May, 10, 2014. He added his British Airways itinerary number, which was I4TMLO and the reservation he made on April 22, 2014 and the time the e-ticket was issued on April 25, 2014. He further added that one Olatunji Buhari was his travel agent. He gave details of the agent and how he can be contacted for verification. He added that he left Nigeria via British Airways on Sunday, April 27, 2014 and landed at London Heathrow Airport. He boarded another flight going to San Francisco and landed on April 28, 2014. He returned to Nigeria on Sunday, May 10, 2014 as provided in the screen shot of his international passport.
The former presidential aide accused the former governorship candidate of being an agent of the Muhammadu Buhari administration sent to blackmail him. According to him, the presidential aide had personally promised the President that she would cage him (Omokri) before the 2023 election.
On Friday, Natasha Apoti released a series of videos on her Facebook page where she continued to pick holes at Omokri’s defence. She would later delete the videos, perhaps after some prominent clerics appealed and admonished her to do so. Omokri would later claim that the same clerics equally appealed to him to sheathe his sword.
The question on the lips of many who have followed this back and forth is if truly Omokri made advances at Apoti. If he didn’t, why would she make up stories against him? And if he did make passes at her, why would he, a married man, do so or is this his stock-in-trade, ignoring his women and chasing after other women, just as he abandoned his legally married wife, Tuokpe Omokri and his three children in America and moved in with an Ethiopian woman, named Hana, in London as exclusively reported by THEWILL?
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