- Safiu Kehinde
Suspended Kogi lawmaker, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has clarified claims of her sexual harrasment allegations against former Presidential spokesperson, Reno Omokri, and former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello.
NPO Reported that Omokri had, in the wake of Natasha’s allegation against Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, unearthed his encounter with the Kogi lawmaker where she had in a Facebook post claimed Omokri made advances towards her during an event at the Presidential banquet hall in 2014.
The spokesperson of former President, Goodluck Jonathan, recounted how he had debunked the allegation by the suspended lawmaker with evidences to prove he was never at the said event and never made advances towards Natasha.
Omokri, had ever since dubbed Natasha a liar, stressing that her allegation against Akpabio was false just like her allegation against him.
This had, alongside similar claim against Yahaya Bello, been cited by several supporters of Akpabio which further raised question on the genuineness of Natasha’s ongoing scandal against the Senate President.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with renown journalist, Adeola Fayehun, on Friday evening, Natasha recounted what ensued between her and Omokri.
She denied ever accusing Omokri and Yahaya Bello of sexual harrasment, stressing that Akpabio is the first and only person she would ever make such allegation against.
“I have never accused anyone of sexual harrasment apart from Senator Akpabio. I never accused Yahaya Bello of sexual harassment, and I never accused Reno Omokri of sexual harrasment.
“I don’t know if you have the screenshot of the text message that I sent. That was the text message that started the whole thing. If Nigerians can go back to the post, it was like my response to one of his posts on Facebook in the year 2019 or 2020.
“And what I said here was a conversation when he was attacking one of my wards who felt really bad.
“That doesn’t not amount to sexual harassment.” She said.
Natasha insisted that it was Omokri who requested for her contact at the banquet hall as she dismissing his claims of not being in the country during the event.
She however reiterated that her allegation against him was not a sexual harrasment case as painted while hinting alleged forgery of passport and ticket stamp by the Nigerian Immigration Service.
“What I said was we went for an event and he walked to me a bit friendly.
“He asked for my number, asked for my name. I gave him a fake name and fake number. So, we never got in touch because it was fake name and fake number.
“The bone of contention at that point was that he said he wasn’t in the country that he wasn’t him that I saw. There must have been somebody else.
“But I insisted that no, I saw you and that was what transpired. That was how he took pictures of his passports and stamps and also presented a ticket which proved that he wasn’t in the country at that time.
“But I was like we know how people get these stamps sometimes- I don’t want to implicate the Immigration.
“I can sit here and get my travel agent to generate five tickets to five different countries. And that doesn’t mean I really travelled. So, it was more like was he the one I saw at the Villa? Wasn’t he the one I saw at the Villa? Did he travel?
“That was all. It was never sexual harrasment. I never accused Reno Omokri of sexual harrasment ever.
“So, I was actually surprised when an incident that happened years back that was not reported as sexual harrasment suddenly became a sexual harassment matter.” She said.