Former presidential aide Reuben Abati has questioned why Tracynither Nicolas Ohiri, a married businesswoman, was reportedly in a hotel room with David Umahi, who was said to have been wearing only a towel at the time.
Abati was reacting to one of the claims made by Ohiri against Umahi, in which alleged the minister attempted to sleep with her.
While narrating her alleged ordeal with the former Ebonyi State Governor, the businesswoman said that Umahi wanted to sleep with and made several advances including coming into her room with towel around his waist.
The story about the Minister of Works and the businesswoman has set social media on fire lately.
Umahi has, however, strongly denied allegations made against him by Ohiri, who also claimed he owes her N250 million for promotional materials supplied during his 2014 governorship campaign.
Ohiri is now facing defamation charges filed by the Nigeria Police at an Abuja Magistrate court following a three-day detention.
“As I started asking him for my payment, David was asking me out while I’m asking for my payment. David is asking me to date him. I told him. ‘No Sir,’” she told reporters in Abuja.
“One day, I got so frustrated. I said sir, can you concentrate and pay me my money? Stop telling me about dating you. I’ve told you I cannot date you. He became angry and hung up on me. The next thing, he sent me a message that I insulted him. ‘I will teach you a lesson for insulting me.’ I can show it to the all Nigerians. He said, ‘I will teach… I will deal with you for insulting me. So that was it. Since that day, he blocked me.”
Explaining further, Ohiri said, “He called me to come to his state to display my craft. I’m into the business of corporate gifts. So I came to his state on his invitation three times.
“So one morning, he woke me up around 5:00 am – then he was the deputy governor – and told me that he was going to contest as a governor, that he’ll be needing me to produce promotional gift items that he can use for campaign.
“So I told him, okay, sir, since we’ve had different presentations with you and you’ve picked some items, I’ll look through what you picked earlier and see and also advise better what can be used, since they are for campaigns.
“So I asked him, ‘what about the mobilization? Because we had initially given him quotation, he told me to please go ahead and that he doesn’t have money that he is going to Abuja because he has been going to Abuja to and fro to meet with Goodluck Jonathan, to help him raise fund for his election, because he’s having problems with his principal.
“So I didn’t still go ahead, but he kept on calling me and pestering me, because all the while we went to his state, this man never gave me money for fuel. He never gave us accommodation. I used to pay in his hotel for myself and my staff.
“The only time he asked us to stay in his house. The man did not allow me to sleep. He tied towel on his waist and came into my room and was pestering me. I had to tell him, ‘Okay, wait, let me give my staff a Bible.’ And I ran away from the place where he was and enter my staff room, and they locked it. That was where I slept, because of David Umahi’s disturbance…”
The claim about the minister chasing her around in a hotel room did not sit well with Reuben Abati, who questioned why a married woman would give room for such.
Reacting to the development on Arise News Morning Show, Abati said, “And again, she’s a married woman. As a married woman, what are you doing in a hotel room with Umahi tying towel?”
He added, “Contractual issues, if transactions go wrong, the place to go is a court of law. Dramatizing, it would amount to contempt either in the face of the court or away from the face of the court.”
