Police authorities in Abuja yesterday confirmed that they are investigating allegations of blackmail against billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, by the managing director of a firm with dealings with the Nigeria Stock Exchange (Pro-Share Nig Ltd), Mr Femi Awoyemi.
Awoyemi allegedly threatened Otedola to pay a ransom of N50million or he would publish damaging documents against him.
Consequently, the Police noted that Awoyemi, who had been invited severally, including through his lawyers, to state all he knew about the matter, had been on the run from both his house and his office, even as he directed his staff to delete all the text messages and computer documents relating to his threats from their phones and office computers.A statement by Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Olusola Amore, said: “The Police commenced investigation into the case reported against Femi Awoyemi, MD of Pro-share, for allegedly demanding, with threat, for a ransom of N50million from Femi Otedola not to publish a particular article but the suspect went ahead with his threat and published the article
The initial case Mr. Otedola reported to the police was that a particular publication commenting on his various debts to vaarious banks in Nigeria are injurious to his person pursuant to which the police invade PROSHARE, seeing that that complaint cannot be sustained in court they have decided to change the story. The question is if the state of Mr. Otedola's debt is in the public domain as can be evidence in the various court cases against him and by him and variuos newspaper comments thereon what will be the reason for any person to want to use the same fact to exhort money from Mr. Otedola