Nigerians Blasts Linda Ikeji Over ‘ill-Mannered’ Apology to Mayowa’s Family

Days after the Lagos State Police Command published a report confirming that the#SaveMayowa campaign was not a scam, blogger Linda Ikeji apologised for accusing the family of scamming Nigerians. However, she is being called out on Twitter over the shots she took at the Mayowa Ahmed family in the apology.

“#SaveMayowa wasn’t a scam after all, my apologies to the family,” the blogger began today, and then detailed why she jumped the gun to make such heavy accusation.

She wrote:

“I received a call saying the #SaveMayowa campaign was a scam. That the lady was terminally ill and the family had no intentions of using the money raised for her health to treat her as they had no invite from the hospital in Atlanta, neither did she even have a visa to the US.

They wanted me to blog it quickly so people could stop donating. I found it hard to believe at first but it was coming from people who were directly involved in raising money for the sick girl. I sent someone to LUTH to investigate, he got there and found chaos. The Police was already involved, people were being questioned, some folks were shouting, he spoke to people in the hospital and many seemed confused. I spoke with those who had called me, and they said 1000%, the whole thing was a scam.

And I sincerely believe that at the time they told me this, they genuinely believed it to be a fact. I don’t think it was done maliciously. After they sent me documents showing the hospital in Atlanta was not really involved in Mayowa’s treatment and LUTH medical directors denied knowledge of a fund raising for the sick girl, I believed it to also be a fact! And I wrote it. My mistake, I think, was owning the story, I probably should have quoted them. And maybe investigated more. My apologies to the family! The post has since been taken down.”

However, Ms Ikeji’s note was laced with doubt, because she added:

“What I am happy about is that; even if the family had had dubious intentions initially, now they can’t do any of that, as everyone is now watching. So maybe a good thing came out of the whole chaos.”

This paragraph raised eyebrows. Upset folks took to social media to call her out.

“Linda ikeji should have not bothered if she was still going to drag Mayowa’s Family,” one twitter user said. Another said, “Linda Ikeji is really terrible. Can’t even defend her nonsense. Did a blog post to apologise to Mayowa’s fam, but still threw shots.”

See the reactions:

 

Recall that the family of the said Mayowa read all the accusations Linda Ikeji and the other parties made against them.

“Mayowa on her sick bed has watched all videos on #SaveMayowa, read virtually all articles written – the lies and unconfirmed ‘exclusives’. From high enthusiasm of funds raised, 2 a low point of being accused as scam to rip humanity of d gift of hope given to her,” the family wrote on Twitter.

Following outrage over Ms Ikeji’s non-apology, the blogger quickly edited out the offensive part of her post, but not before folks had made screenshots of it.