Press statement
Abia born business man Sir Ako Obioma has threatened to take legal action against an online publication based in Abia state for using his image in a malicious report that has nothing to do with his name or person.
Sir Ako Obioma said the promoters of the said mischievous publiction was writing about one Obi Akoma, while using his image to represent the said faceless Obi Akoma who was alleged to had caused the break- up of the marriage of a lady he was alleged to be having amorous relationship with. He, therefore demanded the retraction and withdrawal of his image and an unreserved apology tendered to him in all the medium it appeared within 48 hours or he would take legal action the blogger.
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The press statement read thus:
“The attention of Sir Ako Obioma has been drawn to a patently false and malicious story by an online news service called Focus Abia, an unknown platform with no journalistic pedigree or iota of credibility.
In the said publication which bears the image of Sir Ako Obioma, it was alleged that one Obi Akoma who they wanted to pass off as Sir Ako Obioma, made a purported mistress by name Boma Whyte to lose her womb to an abortion session that was arranged for her in a Lagos hospital after drugging the said mistress.
The publication went on to claim that the said Ms Boma Whyte who resides in Port Harcourt and married to a top bank executive narrated her predicament to the online media and that the abortion incident has affected her marriage. The story went on to alleged that Mr Obi Akoma conspired with one Mr Onumoh Eleazar, who acted as the Medical Director of Empire medical Centre, Ikorodu, where Mr Akoma usually takes his numerous women who got pregnant for him to for abortion sessions.
In the statement issued in Umuahia Sir Ako Obioma said that “ordinarily, I wouldn’t have bothered with such junk publication because giving it a response will only dignify the authors of such concocted lies, but because of my image which was mischievously linked to the story to make it appear real I have to clarify that the said publication was fabricated and designed to slander my person and character for political reasons.
For those who could read between the lines, the online outfit which called itself Focus Abia represents the exact character and image of its sponsors whose stock in trade is to pull down and smear any person that holds dissenting political view in the state.
But let me warn the sponsors of this campaign of calumny that no amount of smear campaign will deter me from standing up for the truth as far as governance is concerned in Abia State. The position I have taken on issues concerning the development of Abia state and why all hands must be on deck to salvage it from the hands of few, who have personalised the state resources will not change.
If they like let them go and produce ten Ms Boma Whyte, the people of Abia and Nigerians know better that my demand for accountability and for the incumbent governor to be given a free hand to operate like others, should not be a ground for such a ridiculous and childish media attack on my person.
I think it’s preposterous for the political jobbers and their hatchet men to descend to this level of calumnious campaign just to get at a perceived critic of the monarchical system of leadership that has been foisted on Abia state for years. I know that anyone that is against the plan to return the overlords back to power in Abia come 2023 is blacklisted to be hounded and maligned.
So, to put the record straight I am not Mr Obi Akoma that was erroneously referred to in the junk publication that is bereft of any journalistic flavour or professionalism. An incident they claimed took place in 2016 is what the enemies of Abia are trying to use to scandalise my character which will not take them anywhere. The story is nothing but a wishy-washy stuff without any substance and more like a fiction.
I therefore demand that if the use of my picture in the fabricated publication was due to printers error, it should be pulled within 24 hours and an unreserved apology tendered to me failure of which I shall reserve the option to proceed against those behind the misleading publication.
