Former ministerial aide and Publisher of online
news platform, The Signal, Ohimai Amaize, and the
editor of the Signal, Yemi Adebowale, have sat
down for a one on one interview with Mustapha
Audu, the man being accused of raping Lotanna
Igwe-Odunze (popularly known as Sugabelly).
The interview was reportedly conducted in Abuja
and sees Mustapha addressing the issues around
his relationship with Sugabelly, stating his own
side of the story, and singling out former education
minister, Obiageli Ezekwesili, for condemnation for
taking sides with Sugabelly without hearing his
own side.
Mustapha also gave his own version of how he
met Sugabelly, what he thinks she wants from him,
among other things.


Who is ‘Sugabelly’ to you?
Lotanna as her real name is called, is someone
who we were colleagues together while I was
serving at an IT firm in Abuja called Alteq. She was
a staff at Alteq. We were colleagues for a while and
at some point we dated for about two months. I
came back to Nigeria in 2006, and it was at Alteq I
first met her. I’m not sure how long she had
worked there before I came to the company for my
NYSC. It was a long time ago. I was about 24
then. We talked like every other person. There was
a time she had a party for the office, I thought it
was a party for the office but it was her birthday
party, her 18th birthday party. It was in March of
that year. I didn’t go for it. I usually don’t go to
office parties. I had another business. I was
working at my company and at the IT firm as well.
So one day at the office she came to me and
harassed me that I missed her party and I said, oh,
don’t worry I will make it up to you. I will take you
out for sharwama and I took her to 212; then they
used to sell sharwarma. This was the first time I
took her out. There are emails to corroborate this.
From then on we started talking.
She was a very interesting personality. She is very
brilliant and she reads a lot of books. I read a lot
of books too and I don’t meet people who read a
lot of book. I used to read a lot of fantasy books.
All these Game of Thrones people are watching as
movies now, I read them as books like ten years
ago. Knights of Shallaman, Wheel of Time, Lord of
the Rings, Inheritance Cycle, many many books I
read years ago and there were very few people
who knew these things. She was one of them. She
read a lot and she wrote. She was a very brilliant
writer; in fact, I think that was why she was
working as someone’s secretary at the office. She
used to write a lot of letters for the company.
Claims have emerged from her that as at January
of 2007 I was in a relationship with her and doing
all sorts of wicked things to her. Just like now, in
December, precisely December 17, 2006, I lost my
mum. I was in the UK. I watched my mum die. I
loved my mum. I brought her body back to
Nigeria, so just like now I was going through a
period of grief. So it wasn’t possible all the things
she is claiming that I did. I would be mourning.


How long did your relationship (affair) with her
last?
Our relationship lasted like a month and a half. Not
even up to two months. I found out she was
sleeping with my friends. She slept with a couple
of my friends. I discovered and told her about it.
She told me she loved me, she wanted to marry
me and was madly and deeply in love with me.
And I told her it’s not possible, we can’t get
married because I am not at the stage where I
wanted to be married. And you’ve had something
to do with my friends, so the relationship ended.
While we were in the relationship, she had told me
things about her mum, that she hated her mum,
her mum wasn’t there for her and stuff like that.
She sent me an email once making reference to
her having visions of violent rape the first time that
we had something physically. She said she had
visions of violent rape from a past memory and
that we weren’t close enough for her to tell me the
details. On one occasion then when we spoke on
the phone, she said I shouldn’t abandon her, and
then she told me that her mum’s boyfriend raped
her. She said a lot of negative things about her
mum. This was part of the reason I didn’t want to
release these emails to protect her.
But the main reason I am doing this is because I
got a call today, someone told me that her friends
disclosed that she’s being planning this for while,
she is actually writing a book and planning to
finish a book, she wants to start an NGO, she
wants to appeal to the US government about
surviving rape in Africa and she wants to use my
family, because of my family’s political name to get
traction. I heard she is getting influential people
involved, I hear she has involved the lady behind
the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, Dr. Oby
Ezekwesili. Dr. Ezekwesili reminds me of my mum.
She reminds me of someone who should have
been my mum and if someone said something
about your son, you shouldn’t immediately go to
the world and say “Oh, you are this or that.” At
least call your son, hear him out. And this is not
even about me wanting to say anything to defend
myself.
Please read the communication between me and
this girl. Everytime I sent her a message, it was
always about “How are you doing? Hope you are
doing okay? Don’t be too nasty in college. But I
know you are very smart and you will do well.
Even in the emails, I mentioned that I encouraged
her. She even sent me a message on Facebook
apologizing for flirting with my friends, how she
loves me and I told her, it’s okay. It’s not the end
of the world. And now, people are saying I’m such
a beast and I’m such a monster. You didn’t even
talk to me. You didn’t even ask me… These things
are so horrific. What kind of person can actually do
these things? Not only did I do that and I did it
with my younger brother that was just 15 back
then? I did that with my older brother who was
about 30 years old then? And this older brother is
not my immediate older brother. He is two
brothers ahead of me. Then my cousin? Then my
friends? Then the Nigeria Police Force? This is
such a movie.

How is your family reacting to this?
Of course it’s very hard. We are mourning. She’s
been releasing these this for a while. She’s been
doing this for a while but my family has kept quiet
all along because we know the truth. Yes, some of
my family members are really shaken right now.
We are grieving. I have just been orphaned. I loved
my dad. My dad is a hero. Anybody from Kogi
State knows that. Look at his burial. How many
people have received his burial? Look at the whole
country? If we were such wicked people, if my dad
was a monster, would people react? There was a
rumour that my dad had risen. If you saw the
people the way they were praying and rejoicing.
And now this girl has used this unfortunate

How long have you been married?
I have been married for like six years now. I got
married December 15, 2009. And that was when
my problem with her really started; when she
found out I got married.



Have you ever raped anyone?
Common, why would I do that? It doesn’t make
any sense whatsoever. I can never and will never
support such heinous act. Common! It’s not even
a question you ask a normal person. It’s like
asking, have you committed murder before?
Because it’s such an inhuman thing! And I
understand why people would do this and she’s
brilliant. Because she knows human beings are
emotional and sentimental. Play on their
intelligence. Play on the fact that women have
been raped before and for us men, we hardly speak
up. I am not saying men are angels. I’m not
saying I am an angel. But I have never raped
anyone in my life before. I am happily married. I
have three little daughters. I can’t even imagine it.
God!
You know what? I am going to step out for those
who have been accused falsely. There are a lot of
people who have been falsely accused. You know,
because of my last name, I am fortunate to have
the opportunity to speak up. You see, people don’t
even need to hear me speak. Just read the
conversation I had with this lady and you can read
her blog. It’s just a blog. You can compare the
two. In my email conversations with her, you can
tell that I have genuine feelings for her and she
has genuine feelings for me. We are
communicating as human beings. Then you read
this blog and it’s something else. In her mails to
me, you will read her asking about me, my
brothers, my friends, my cousins, telling me how
she knows that I’m so hardworking and that I’m a
good person. I don’t understand how that
translates to a blog that says I was such a
terrorist.


What do you think she wants from you?
It’s fame. It’s simple. Fame. She has skills and in
her heart, she’s found out that you know what? My
blog isn’t really getting a lot of traction, I’ve been
working on this story, I’ve been writing a book, so
let me put out this story first. First, she got some
Twitter people to put it up, when that didn’t get as
much traction, she resorted to this. That was the
groundwork for this. Now she has put this on her
blog and everybody is going to her blog, she is
about to launch a book on surviving rape in Africa;
all of this is some sort of elaborate plan to make
money and fame to the detriment of someone who
hasn’t done anything to her. Whatever it is that’s
bothering her, I think her mum should speak to
her. Her mum honestly needs to speak to her. Her
being in the US and being away might not be the
best solution. She should actually have a sit down.
What is bothering her? She told me she hates her
mum, that her mum’s boyfriend raped her. Let her
talk to her mum about that.




What is your next line of action?
It has to be a legal action. I’m not doing this
because I want money from her. The suit I am
going to carry out against her has nothing to do
with money. I want her to write a public apology,
publish it in the newspaper, take down her blog
and retract all she said against me. I want all those
she has lied to, to know she lied against me. She
needs to come out and tell the world: “I lied about
this. These people are innocent of all I said against
them.” That’s what I want from her.
And going forward, I want people like Dr.
Ezekwesili to think before they act. People called
me to draw my attention to her tweets. I thought
she was fighting for a cause. I thought she was a
mother. I know her sons and they know me. Chine
and Chuba used to play football together with me
every weekend. They know me. I am not a rapist. I
had a mother and my mother would not be proud
of Dr. Ezekwesili. What would have been her first
reaction if this same girl accused her sons of rape?
Would she have gone first to Twitter to condemn
them? Would she have gone first to Afe Babalola
SAN? If that would be her first reaction, then I
must confess, she must be a really terrible
mother. Is her cause real? What cause is she on?
Is it because Bring Back Our Girls is no longer
working? Dr. Ezekwesili, please read the emails.
Your sons will tell you the same. They are my
friends. They know I’m not a rapist. Have you
approached me? Have you said who is the person?
Let me approach him? Let me reach out? Please
someone give me his number. She didn’t do this,
instead she went to Afe Babalola. Chuba is my
good friend. If they said this about Chuba, would
she go to Afe Babalola? Please answer me?
I never did anything to Lotanna, read the emails.
Don’t even listen to me, please read the emails.
Since she’s made claims, read our mail
conversations after the events she alleged
occurred had happened. Read her timelines. Some
of these terrible events were occurring and she
wasn’t talking about it? She’s emailing me and I’m
emailing her and not for once was it mentioned?
Common! No, that just means nothing was actually
going on except our normal conversation. I had
other people in the office that left, some for the UK
that I still chat with. We were colleagues!


What is your advise to men out there who find
themselves in your kind of situation?
I have to stand up for those who have been
victimized, those who have been condemned even
before they were given a chance to defend
themselves. I will be fighting, like my father who
has always been a fighter. And I am a winner. I
will fight this and anyone who believes that what I
have done is so terrible based on the allegations, I
will ask you, please come and ask me. Come and
hear my own. If you are not satisfied then you can
do anything. The truth is out there. Nobody right
now in the country knows what I am feeling right
now, the trauma and the stress. Everyone is calling
either to condole with me or to condemn me for
what was alleged against me. People are asking,
what did you do? I am under tremendous pressure.
At the same time, I am grieving. I don’t have a
mum anymore and I don’t have a dad. A lot is
going on. I can’t even breathe. No one cares.
Everyone just sees me now as a monster; this guy,
his family… and its very painful and it could cause
a long-term damage not just for me.
Unfortunately, I am not active in the social media
and even if I was, I don’t think it is appropriate to
just expose her and her family issues. That’s why I
kept quiet. But to all those out there who are quick
to jump to conclusion when you hear one side of
the story, please have a rethink. It’s not fair. I was
long guilty before anybody decided to contact me
to hear my side of the story. I thank those who
refused to jump to conclusion, but for the many
majorities who did, it’s not right, especially given
this time that I am grieving. I just got orphaned. It
is very very sad. She probably did this because
she knows I will protect her. I have children and I
know what it’s like. I will not release everything
she sent to me. But please read the emails and
Facebook conversation.
I will also like to appeal to mothers today. They
need to take responsibility for their children. I am
certain that there are many people sitting and
rotting in jail because of this. I will not go down
quietly. I will not let them tarnish the good name
and image my father built. I will not let someone
my family’s grief as an opportunity to launch a
social or a media career. I will not allow it to
happen. I will start a legal process and I will sue
everyone who decides to make me their next
launch pad. Once this is over and the dust settles
down, I will be starting an NGO for those who have
been falsely accused and for those who have been
falsely accused by authorities bigger than them
and for those who have been falsely accused of
rape. I believe they need a voice and I will be that
voice.

source>>>> http://www.thescoopng.com/ohimai-amaize-gets-exclusive-interview-with-accused-rapist-mustapha-audu-read/

Hmmm... it's actually revealing to hear him respond.

Truly, there are three sides to a story