Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi has dismissed an allegation that he swindled one Ms Fagbule in a $180,000 marriage scam.
A statement on Wednesday by the monarch’s spokesman Moses Olafare urged women to protect themselves from internet marriage fraud due to their desire to become his wife by all means.
The statement said, “The following assertions are hereby made for necessary clarifications: That the news as posted by a Twitter (now X) handle called ‘99% OPPRESSED’ is fake, untrue and absolutely an unfounded allegation only adopted as a nugatory character assassination tactic, aimed at achieving cheap popularity with a view to drawing huge followers/traffic for avaricious monetisation from Twitter (X).
“That the so-called Ms Fagbule was and is never known to the Ooni of Ife for any interpersonal communication or relationship whatsoever, talk less of being so promised with a marriage proposal.
“Ooni Adeyeye does not operate any Facebook accounts personally. He runs the palace as an institutional organisation with a functional media directorate, which has a section that operates his social media handles – Instagram, Facebook etc.”
Oba Ogunwusi asked that if the woman so mentioned as Ms Fagbule is from Osun State or Ile-Ife in particular, why didn’t she come to the palace to meet him in person throughout the so-called relationship?
“Rather than taking her matter to the appropriate agencies like EFCC and the Police for professional investigation, which could have adequately helped her, she chose to make it a social media brouhaha.
“If, for whatever reason, she had preferred social media to the Police and EFCC who are professionally trained, shouldn’t she have engaged a credible mainstream media organisation – print and electronic, or consulted credible Human Right crusaders like CDHR, Femi Falana Chambers and their likes in the country, who undoubtedly possess tested capacity and passion for applying principles of justice and fairness in their efforts of thorough investigation in any matter of injustice against the oppressed,” the Ooni further asked.
The monarch described the said letter of marriage proposal paraded on the X handle of the so-called ‘99% OPPRESSED’ as a fabrication of lies.
He affirmed that the letterhead used for the letter does not reflect the originality of the palace’ official letterhead, adding that the body of the letter does not also grammatically reflect letters he personally signs in any way.
“With the Ooni’s status in wealth, business success, philanthropy and highly revered royalty, to allege or even suggest that he would be collecting money from any lady for travel expenses and others in exchange for marriage with a huge portfolio of billions of naira being handled by Ooni Ogunwusi for humanity, can only be viewed by reasonable people in the society as a figment of the imagination of Mrs Fagbule and her social media Messiah.
“If the lady truly has a genuine case of marriage proposal fraud against anyone, whether or not it affects the name of the Ooni, she is hereby invited to the palace in Ile-Ife to physically meet the Ooni for fatherly assistance, and with the help of the law enforcement agencies to uncover the perpetrators of this inhuman crime against her,” the statement said.
