Omokri Recalls Akpoti’s Accusation, Says Media Should Leave Him Out Of Sexual Harassment Saga

● Urges the Senate to set up a high-powered investigation

By PHC Telegraph

A former presidential aide, Reno Omokri has joined a one-time Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, in urging the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to set up  a high-powered investigation to examine allegations of sexual harassment that have enveloped the upper chamber.

Omokri said in a statement issued Saturday on X that he has no intention to be dragged into the sexual harassment saga even as he restated the high regard that he has for the institution and its leadership.

“I have the highest respect and confidence in that institution and its leadership”, the former presidential aide stated, “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.”

“I have been inundated with calls from almost all major media outlets in Nigeria to interview me about the issues involving the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and Senator Natasha Akpoti”, Omokri noted.

He explained that media organs have been attempting to get his take on the issue, given the fact that he was “once accused by Senator Natasha Akpoti of the exact grave allegations that she is now accusing the Senate President of.

“Against my will, I have been trending on various social media platforms, and for the sake of my family, it would be best to put this matter to rest.”

Part of the statement read, “I do not know if what Senator Natasha Akpoti accused the Senate President of is true, as I was not physically present when the alleged events took place.

“However, I can testify that Senator Natasha Akpoti once had an altercation with me on social media over a post where a woman made advances at me and I rejected her and stated that my wife is a beauty queen and is more than enough for me.

“Apparently the woman is or was a friend of Senator Akpoti. And after I had scorned her friend’s advances, Senator Akpoti accused me of sexually harassing her at Aso Rock Presidential Villa, during a reception held for the visiting Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, when he visited Nigeria between May 4 and May 7 2014.

“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.”

Omokri revealed that an out of court settlement was arranged as a result of the intervention of a very “influential and respectable man” from his ethnic nationality and the mediation efforts of a prominent Christian clergyman.

“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”, Omokri added.