The Ambassador-Designate to South Africa, Femi Fani-Kayode, has accused the United States-based lobbying firm Von Batten-Montague-York LC of circulating defamatory information about President Bola Tinubu.
He slammed the firm’s owner, Karl Ikemefuna Von Batten, and dared him to provide evidence that Tinubu was bribed with $3 million through an associate to secure his silence.
Naija News reports that Fani-Kayode shared his reservations in a statement he posted on his handle.
He fumed that his email and direct messages across his social media platforms had been flooded with materials published by Von Batten about the Nigerian president.
“My email and the DM on all my social media handles have been flooded with the hogwash that you publish about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on a daily basis by people from all over the world,” Fani-Kayode said.
The former minister accused Von Batten of attempting to portray Tinubu as a criminal despite the president not having been convicted of any crime.
He said those pursuing the disclosure case involving Tinubu in the United States should allow the court proceedings to run their course.
Fani-Kayode said he was confident the American judiciary would uphold the rule of law and protect what he described as Tinubu’s legitimate privacy rights.
He also accused Von Batten of having a personal obsession with the matter and questioned his identity, educational background and the circumstances surrounding his adoption of the surname Von Batten.
The former minister claimed he had been informed that Von Batten adopted the surname through his marriage to Elizabeth Von Batten.
He questioned why the US-based lobbyist, whose records allegedly carried the Nigerian name Ikemefuna Okeke, was publicly known as Karl Von Batten.
Fani-Kayode further stated that Von Batten had been hired by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and paid $1.2 million to pursue legal and lobbying efforts against Tinubu.
He accused Von Batten of misleading Atiku and pursuing what he described as a futile campaign.
“If this were not the case, how did you manage to fool His Excellency Abubakar Atiku, the great Wazirin Adamawa, into paying you 1.2 million USD for pursuing a futile cause and treading a fruitless path that will lead to nowhere and end in NOTHING!” he said.
Fani-Kayode also questioned Von Batten’s claims about his academic qualifications, saying there appeared to be no publicly available confirmation of his alleged attendance at institutions including Oxford, Columbia, Harvard, Cornell and the New York Institute of Technology.
He maintained that efforts by Von Batten, his firm and others allegedly working against Tinubu would fail.
According to Fani-Kayode, neither legal proceedings in the United States nor lobbying activities would determine Tinubu’s political future.
“President Tinubu’s destiny and fate is not in your hands but rather in the hands of God and the Nigerian people,” he said.
