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1/29 I’m making this PUBLIC disclaimer to FULLY dissociate myself from business dealings I had with @FunkePhillips in 2015/2016, which I terminated in 2016…
2/29…after I found out @FunkePhillips is facing COCAINE smuggling charges (with a 2009 court case); and on 4 July 2011, @ndlea_nigeria listed her as skipping bail. Link below, full screenshots to come: allafrica.com/stories/201107… 
3/29 In 2015, I originated and conceptualised a blog and event portal on the business of drinking, from a female perspective. I needed a face for it, as I was not based in Nigeria. This is where @FunkePhillips came in. I later called it The Beverage SPACE (TBS) @beveragespace
4/29 I set up all email, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook accounts, paid a designer to make a logo (seen here for August 2015), everything. All @FunkePhillips had to do was go to events/bars, send in little notes, writings.
5/29 I handled the blog, edited written copy, tapped my contacts in Corporate Communications, PR & media in general, to boost our networks. @FunkePhillips had no money at the time, so I handled practically all costs…
6/29…including domain hosting, calls to contacts, sending proposals for sponsored events planning hangouts, generating content ideas and even doing interviews from Germany with my Nigerian contacts.
7/29 We started to make progress in a very short time; I flew into Nigeria, arranged meetings with my contacts, I will not mention them here, as they are private people and I may need their private testimony for court.
8/29 But each time I told them I’d be working underground, as I was based outside, working on my day job anyway, and so @FunkePhillips would be TBS’ face. She attended some meetings, and was aware.
9/ 29 Soon, we were about to get into signing partnerships, when my manager in Germany reminded me to do a character check on @FunkePhillips. I remembered I'd heard some absurd rumours, and went online to check...
10/29 I discovered @FunkePhillips was arrested in a Lagos airport with 3.14kgs of cocaine, and skipped bail, prompting then @ndlea_nigeria chairman Ahmadu to list her among wanted “drug barons” in July 2011. News story attached
11/29 The report states that the information that @FunkePhillips and other drug barons were on the loose was corroborated by then @ndlea_nigeria spokesperson Mitchell Ofoyeju (@mitchelljnr) cc @dg_ndlea
11/29 I next used my contacts in the courts and prisons to legally crosscheck these facts, and presented the situation to @FunkePhillips, asking her to explain. See her case file number photo:
12a/29 In private chats I'll reserve for court, @FunkePhillips said she “went through a lot to settle the case.” I replied that the only way the case could be settled was if she was ACQUITTED, or SERVED TIME, but not so, according to @ndlea_nigeria I reminded her.
12b/29 Attached are screenshots that show that weeks after @ndlea_nigeria noted her as a “drug baron” on the lam, @FunkePhillips was online, on social media.
13/29 I therefore asked @FunkePhillips for her documents of acquittal. She responded that this was the work of her enemies. With such answers, I told her I could NEVER work with her on any basis; we needed to cut all ties immediately.
14/29 Specifically, I told @FunkePhillips I would pay off those I had contracted to work for us, handle all the bills, take down everything to do with TBS – I wanted NOTHING more to do with a fugitive…
15/29 …even if Nigeria is mediocre enough to allow people like @FunkePhillips with a pending drug case walk the streets freely. This absurdity was not going to be my norm.
16/29 I told @FunkePhillips that in fact I did not care what happened in Nigeria. I cared about my career and life in Europe, where even the whiff of an association with criminality is just as bad as criminality.
17/29 Therefore, over subsequent communications, particularly through mutual friends, I asked her to make sure she never referred to me as someone she worked with, never referred to or made similarities to TBS…
18/29 … to ensure she never used any similar idea or contacts made, so that people would not subconsciously associate me with her, as we had gone far. @FunkePhillips agreed. I added she was a fraud, and must do right by the law.
19/29 HOWEVER I thereafter had major surgery, job moves, and JUST discovered that in fact, shortly after this, @FunkePhillips set up THE BEVERAGE ROOM (TBR), using many ideas, & in some instances, even same contacts.
20/29 Worse still, when I raised the issue 72 hours ago, contacts have since come to tell me they thought I was still a silent partner at TBR, and that is why they joined online groups, bought t-shirts, went to and had events, etc.
21/29 To be clear: I publicly (via social media) tagged @FunkePhillips, asking her to pull down TBR, because it is a rip-off of TBS, and she knows why she has to: Intellectual property theft, and the matter of GROSS criminality.
22/29 @FunkePhillips and her associates have since said I am doing it because I am “jealous” and I want to pull her down because I heard she is an aide to Lagos state governor-elect @jidesanwoolu. FOR THE RECORD: I ONLY JUST BECAME AWARE OF THIS.
