Sahara Reporters has learned that former Senator Iyabo
Obasanjo, the first daughter of President Olusegun Obasanjo, has refused
to denounce or deny her authorship of the controversial letter she reportedly wrote to her father.
A
source close to Mr. Obasanjo told Sahara Reporters journalist that Ms.
Obasanjo had so far defied pressures from friends and family to state
that she was not the writer of the letter or that she did not share the
views expressed in it.
It was also learnt that Ms. Obasanjo, who
currently resides in the State of Massachusetts, has refused to take
phone calls from the press. Instead, she has only accepted calls from a
select few people whose caller IDs she knows, according to a friend
knowledgeable about her movement today.
Moreover, the friend also
disclosed that Ms. Obasanjo had virtually stopped taking calls on her
cell phone, except from members of a small inner circle.
Part of
her plan was to thwart relatives and friends of her father who had been
sent on a mission to convince
her to dissociate herself from the content
of the explosive letter in order to save her father’s image.
Sahara
Reporters source revealed that the former senator’s cell phone had been
rining incessantly all day yesterday, but was hardly answered.
The
correspondent ascertained that Ms. Obasanjo’s voice message box was
full, making it impossible for callers to leave her any messages.
Since the letter was published yesterday, several blogs have claimed that the letter under question had been fabricated, an assertion that Sahara Reporters determined to be completely false.
Several
sources at Vanguard newspaper told Sahara Reporters that former
President Obasanjo’s daughter spoke twice yesterday with editors of the
paper and stood by her letter. One source added that the former senator
also agreed to let the paper release a tape of her confirmation should
the need arise.
Late yesterday, Sahara Reporters contacted the
Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative where Ms. Obasanjo is a
fellow. Commenting on the situation, John Kendzior, a director of the
program, confirmed that Ms. Obasanjo was in Boston and enrolled in the
program. He asked Sahara Reporters journalist to send an email to be
forwarded to her for response.
Still, Ms. Obasanjo did not respond
to the email sent via the director. Nor did she respond to several text
messages to her mobile phone.
The fallout between Mr. Obasanjo
and his daughter is the latest in a long-running feud between the former
president and several members of his immediate family. Several years
ago, Gbenga, Mr. Obasanjo’s first son, made shocking claims in a divorce
filing to the effect that his father slept with his estranged wife.
The
former president’s first wife, Oluremi Obasanjo, who is the mother of
both Iyabo and Gbenga, also wrote a scathing tell-all memoir titled
Bitter-Sweet: My Life With Obasanjo. In the book, Mrs. Obasanjo accused
her former husband of physical and emotional assaults as well as
philandering.
Former President Obasanjo has come under sharp
attacks from aides of President Goodluck Jonathan after he had written
an open letter accusing Mr. Jonathan of deception, encouragement of
corruption, and the undermining of Nigeria’s democracy.
Source: Sahara Reporters
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