A report that emerged from an online blogger, Chukwudi Iwuchukwu, has alleged that one Ibime Belema-Jonathan, a 24-year-old native of Nembe, Baylesa State, has announced on the Twitter yesterday that he is one of the President’s illegitimate sons.
The report from the blogger said: “According to Belema-Jonathan, his mother was a receptionist in a Port Harcourt hotel (which shall remain undisclosed) when she met Goodluck nearly 25 years ago. Their relationship was made private because of the risks it posed to Goodluck’s then fledgling political career.”
According to the blogger, “He has decided to disclose this information after recently being informed by his mother, who had just passed away. It is his desire for his father to assume and fulfil his fatherly duties after a lifetime of absence”, that led to the revelation.
Even though the blogger, Chukwudi Iwuchukwu, who claims the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, has his address, admitted that, “we are in a season of political campaign and anything can come up, but the resemblance is striking.”
However, the Presidency through Dr Reuben Abati, the special adviser to the President on media, emphatically said that the President does not have any illegitimate son by whatever name, and dismissed the report, calling it a cheap propaganda from the opposition party.
According to Abati, the timing of the report, coming in the heat of election campaigns, shows the desperation of some people. “It is good for them to know that propaganda and cheap blackmails do not win elections. Nigerians know who they want and who they will vote for. Churning out such blackmail story will not win the election.
This is also coming at a time that the opposition parties signed the Abuja Accord meant to ensure that election campaigns are issue-based and do not degenerate into blackmail.”