My attention was drawn this morning to a predictable falsehood published in Saharareporters.com by its owner, Omoyele Sowore, which he titled “Nigerian Government Takes On Ugwuonye, Its Former Lawyer, In US Court”. The story is a predictable falsehood not only because it is false in all material respects, but also because it
calculatedly misleads the readers in directions that are self-serving to the malicious personal and fraudulent intents and purposes of the publisher, Omoyele Sowore.
Few years ago, I, Emeka Ugwuonye, began to systematically unravel cases after cases in which Sowore Omoyele blackmailed people and extorted money from them in order not to publish false stories about them. And when they refused to pay, Sowore blasted terrible stories and lies against them and their families on his Saharareporters.com. Many hapless and helpless victims fell for this and each time, Sowore smiled to the banks with money fraudulently obtained. At the same time, he claimed to be a new media man and preyed upon the unsuspecting Nigerian public. But some of the victims contacted me, seeking my views as a lawyer. The turning point was December of 2008, when Sowore targeted a Nigerian public figure for similar blackmail. Rather than pay and cry in silence, that man spoke with me. I confronted Sowore and it has been a war between good and evil since then.
At the present, I am suing Sowore in the Maryland Federal District Court for defamation. The lawsuit he deceptively referred to in his nasty publication as “Ugwuonye v. Rotimi” is actually “Ugwuonye v. Sowore/Saharareporters”, a case in which is answering questions as we speak. As he faces the prospects of owing millions of dollars in damages, Sowore and his Sahara Reporters can well be expected to pant and toss in agony and confusion. The reality is that things have changed for Sowore. It is no longer business as usual. It is no longer going to be easy blackmail money as he had gotten used to. Questions will now be asked each time he moves. In fact, I have the transcripts of the deposition, which I conducted on Omoyele Sowore this year. When you read them, you will fully understand what a fraud Sowore and his Sahara Reporters are. He cannot even admit to his readers today that he was speaking about a case that was filed against him.
About three months ago, Sowore rushed and registered Sahara Reporters as a company in New York, clearly in anticipation that he may have to pay damages in the case I filed against him. I take credit for forcing Sowore and Saharareporters into the sunlight. In 2009 when I first sued Sowore, it was impossible to even identify an address for him. He had no address. There was no way to even identify who owned the domain name, Saharareporters.com. There was no registration of any sort. His activities were secrecy wrapped in secrecy. There was no business office or location. But gradually and systematically, I was able to pull him out of his underworld life of shady criminality to the open. His victims now know where to find him and where to sue him. He has to move more cautiously now. He still retains his ways, but the cost of business has gone up for him. He can no longer blackmail with much ease.
My objective and understanding of the owner of Sahara-reporters method is simple: the more I force him into the light and under the rule of law, the more his weaknesses come out. Sowore is not a journalist. He is not even intelligent enough to succeed in a fair competitive environment. The only thing that distinguishes him from the average person is his depraved criminal mentality. He is callous and he has no conscience. He needs to blackmail and lie and extort in order to sustain himself. Without those, he will be out of business in a matter of weeks. His attack against me therefore is understandably a matter of survival for him. But I can assure you that he is on a cliff as we speak. Once people learned that I had sued him, information began to come from all corners of the society. Indeed, one couple that Sowore robbed on the highway in Lagos during his days as a cult-leader in Unilag contacted me with information about their ordeal in the hands of this dangerous man.
In the cases between me and the Nigerian Government or its entities both in the US and in Nigeria, the issues involved are a matter of public knowledge. They are actually pending in courts. Every average person would know that as far as court matters are concerned, every position taken by one party has a counter from the other party. In my case, I have commenced the process of showing how the current firm that represents the Embassy of Nigeria engaged in unethical practices and conspiracy that might have caused Nigeria to lose millions of dollars. That move is definitely sending a shockwave across several important places. A sitting Nigerian Ambassador to Washington is facing yet another ignominious day when his fate would be in the abattoir. Do not expect the Ambassador to go without a fight. Also, the world is just hearing of how the Embassy of Nigeria in Washington under Ambassador Adefuye has been turned into a conduit pipe for money laundry and corruption. As we speak, about 3.5 million dollars of funds in the Nigerian Embassy accounts have been seized and blocked in the United States. That is an unprecedented action – where the Embassy is now facing a criminal investigation in the US. The Embassy of Nigeria knows that if anyone is to hold them accountable, Emeka Ugwuonye is the one. A death wish from the Ambassador is therefore understandable. And the convenient use of a desperado like Sowore/Saharereporters.com is clearly within the realm of their shallow logic.
My belief is that the readers of Sahara Reporters are not really as uninformed or as stupid as Sowore believes them to be. Many have the capacity to think. And when they do, they see the packaged junk and the trash that is called Sahara Reporters, like the person who called me this morning after reading Sahara Reporters story on me. He was totally pissed by the brazen daftness behind the story. For those interested in reading more about what is truly going on in court against Sowore and his Saharareporters, I would assure you that you will have a field day soon.
Emeka Ugwuonye, Esquire
Emeka Ugwuonye’s Rebuttal
May 24, 2012
