The Ooni of Ice, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has refuted reports that he visited embattled former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele at Kuje jail.
The monarch’s spokesperson, Moses Olafare, told reporters on Wednesday that Oba Ogunwusi was at the prison on behalf of Hopes Alive Initiative, HAI, a non-governmental organisation that supports the prison owned by Queen Temitope, one of his wives.
In honour of the Ooni’s eighth anniversary, he added, the programme, which was organised in collaboration with the Kuje correctional administration, focused on providing hope to prisoners regarding their reintegration into society after serving their sentences.
“The intent of those spreading the news was to blackmail the monarch; there is nothing hidden about the event. In any case, the king never met Emefiele because it was an official event organised by the NGO in conjunction with the Kuje Correction Centre.
“The programme centres around giving hope to the inmate that, after serving out their terms, they still have hope to reintegrate back to the society. The Arole Ooni was invited to chair the event in commemoration of his eighth anniversary on the throne.
“What is exclusive about a public programme where different public figures spoke and representatives of the inmate also spoke? How then did the Ooni manage to meet Emefiele?
“We must be careful with how people spread falsehoods about people. The video of the event is available to the public. I am not even sure Emefiele attended the programme because he is only in detention and not an inmate yet, so why link the programme to Emefiele? It is simply to achieve blackmail,” he stated.