One of the son’s of the late Prince Abubakar Audu Mustapha has finally reacted to the rape accusation from Lotanna Odunze-Igwe, known by her social media identity @sugabelly.
Following the death of Abubakar Audu, the APC governorship candidate in Kogi state, Lotanna narrated alarming details of how she repeatedly experienced sexual abuse in the hands of Mustapha, his brothers, his cousin and his friends.
The story of Sugabelly drew the sympathy of a wide section of the Nigerian publicwith disapproval and attacks targeted at the supposed abusers.
Top among her supporters is former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili. she also drew the sympathy of former member of the Nigeria Federal House of Representatives, Abike Dabiri and award winning journalist, Funmi Iyanda.
Even, the Nigerian journalist known to have access to top commanders of the Boko Haram sect, Ahmad Salkida, reacted to the story making rounds in media.
However he didn’t support the girl:
The accusers were silent till this interview with the Signal.
Mustapaha Abubakar Audu speaks on the rape story and relations with Sugabelly.
Read his side of the scandal below.
How Mustapha met Lotanna
Lotanna as her real name is called, is someone who we were colleagues together while I was serving at an IT firm in Abuja called Alteq.
She was a staff at Alteq. We were colleagues for a while and at some point we dated for about two months. I came back to Nigeria in 2006, and it was at Alteq I first met her. I’m not sure how long she had worked there before I came to the company for my NYSC.
It was in March of that year. I didn’t go for it. I usually don’t go to office parties. I had another business. I was working at my company and at the IT firm as well. So one day at the office she came to me and harassed me that I missed her party and I said, oh, don’t worry I will make it up to you.
I will take you out for sharwama and I took her to 212; then they used to sell sharwarma. This was the first time I took her out. There are emails to corroborate this. From then on we started talking. She was a very interesting personality.
Why Sugabelly claims aren’t possible
Claims have emerged from her that as at January of 2007 I was in a relationship with her and doing all sorts of wicked things to her. Just like now, in December, precisely December 17, 2006, I lost my mum. I was in the UK. I watched my mum die. I loved my mum. I brought her body back to Nigeria, so just like now I was going through a period of grief. So it wasn’t possible all the things she is claiming that I did. I would be mourning.
Our relationship lasted like a month and a half. Not even up to two months. I found out she was sleeping with my friends. She slept with a couple of my friends. I discovered and told her about it. She told me she loved me, she wanted to marry me and was madly and deeply in love with me. And I told her it’s not possible, we can’t get married because I am not at the stage where I wanted to be married. And you’ve had something to do with my friends, so the relationship ended.
While we were in the relationship, she had told me things about her mum, that she hated her mum, her mum wasn’t there for her and stuff like that. She sent me an email once making reference to her having visions of violent rape the first time that we had something physically. She said she had visions of violent rape from a past memory and that we weren’t close enough for her to tell me the details. On one occasion then when we spoke on the phone, she said I shouldn’t abandon her, and then she told me that her mum’s boyfriend raped her. She said a lot of negative things about her mum. This was part of the reason I didn’t want to release these emails to protect her.
But the main reason I am doing this is because I got a call today, someone told me that her friends disclosed that she’s being planning this for while, she is actually writing a book and planning to finish a book, she wants to start an NGO, she wants to appeal to the US government about surviving rape in Africa and she wants to use my family, because of my family’s political name to get traction.
I heard she is getting influential people involved, I hear she has involved the lady behind the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili. Dr. Ezekwesili reminds me of my mum. She reminds me of someone who should have been my mum and if someone said something about your son, you shouldn’t immediately go to the world and say “Oh, you are this or that.” At least call your son, hear him out. And this is not even about me wanting to say anything to defend myself.
The communication between Mustapha and this girl
Please read the communication between me and this girl. Everytime I sent her a message, it was always about “How are you doing? Hope you are doing okay? Don’t be too nasty in college. But I know you are very smart and you will do well. Even in the emails, I mentioned that I encouraged her. She even sent me a message on Facebook apologizing for flirting with my friends, how she loves me and I told her, it’s okay. It’s not the end of the world. And now, people are saying I’m such a beast and I’m such a monster. You didn’t even talk to me.
You didn’t even ask me… These things are so horrific. What kind of person can actually do these things? Not only did I do that and I did it with my younger brother that was just 15 back then? I did that with my older brother who was about 30 years old then? And this older brother is not my immediate older brother. He is two brothers ahead of me. Then my cousin? Then my friends? Then the Nigeria Police Force? This is such a movie.
About Mustapha’s marriage
I have been married for like six years now. I got married December 15, 2009. And that was when my problem with her really started; when she found out I got married.
I am happily married. I have three little daughters. I can’t even imagine it. God!
You know what? I am going to step out for those who have been accused falsely. There are a lot of people who have been falsely accused. You know, because of my last name, I am fortunate to have the opportunity to speak up.
You know what? I am going to step out for those who have been accused falsely. There are a lot of people who have been falsely accused. You know, because of my last name, I am fortunate to have the opportunity to speak up.
You see, people don’t even need to hear me speak. Just read the conversation I had with this lady and you can read her blog. It’s just a blog. You can compare the two. In my email conversations with her, you can tell that I have genuine feelings for her and she has genuine feelings for me. We are communicating as human beings. Then you read this blog and it’s something else. In her mails to me, you will read her asking about me, my brothers, my friends, my cousins, telling me how she knows that I’m so hardworking and that I’m a good person. I don’t understand how that translates to a blog that says I was such a terrorist.
“I am not a rapist”
And going forward, I want people like Dr. Ezekwesili to think before they act. People called me to draw my attention to her tweets. I thought she was fighting for a cause. I thought she was a mother. I know her sons and they know me. Chine and Chuba used to play football together with me every weekend. They know me. I am not a rapist. I had a mother and my mother would not be proud of Dr. Ezekwesili.
I never did anything to Lotanna, read the emails. Don’t even listen to me, please read the emails. Since she’s made claims, read our mail conversations after the events she alleged occurred had happened. Read her timelines. Some of these terrible events were occurring and she wasn’t talking about it? She’s emailing me and I’m emailing her and not for once was it mentioned? Common! No, that just means nothing was actually going on except our normal conversation. I had other people in the office that left, some for the UK that I still chat with. We were colleagues!
No one though should expect you to publicly admit committing the acts, even if you did it.
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