Just before the expiration of the seven days notice given to Chief Femi Fani-Kayode by Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu’s lawyers to withdraw a statement published in one of his articles or face legal action, the former Minister for Aviation has withdrawn the controversial “intimate relationship” statement. According to a statement from Rotimi Akinola, Fani-Kayode’s lawyer on Thursday, Mr. Fani-Kayode accepted that he erred by making the comment. The statement however went further that it was “bizarre, absurd and inexplicable” that Mrs Bianca Ojukwu who is Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain claimed they were never acquainted. The statement reads in part, “as our client said earlier through his press secretary some of the words he used to describe his friendship with Ambassador Ojukwu in his article titled”A Word for Those Who Call Me a Tribalist” were indiscreet. He hereby withdraws those words.” Through his lawyer, Chief Fani-Kayode insisted that he knows Mrs Ojukwu (then Bianca Onoh) in the early 80s up till the mid 80s. “They were good friends at the time and they had a few mutual friends who are still alive today, The bizarre, absurd and inexplicable assertion that they were not friends and that Ambassador Ojukwu has never met our client is patently false. Though he has not seen her for over 25 years he spoke to her on the phone when her husband passed on last year,” the lawyer stated. Mrs Ojukwu’s lawyers had written a letter to Fani-Kayode asking for a retraction of the statement within seven days. Street Journal has however gathered that some people who know the two parties have already intervened and are trying to resolve the matter amicably
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