Thread by @renoomokri

1-Open Letter To The MacArthur Foundation (@macfound) re Omoyele Sowore (@YeleSowore) and @SaharaReporters

Dear John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Office of Grants Management [e-mail]

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

2-I write in respect of Mr @YeleSowore and Saharareporters, which you gave $1.3 million.

In giving Sahara Reporters this grant, you claim they are a non-profit media organization that works for transparency and accountability in Nigeria. 

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

3-This assertion concerning Saharareporters is not accurate. I will prove so with documentary evidence.

@YeleSowore, founder of Sahara Reporters, uses the website as a medium to settle scores, blackmail foes and mislead the general public

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

4-For instance, on July 11, 2020, @YeleSowore used @saharareporters to publish a video featuring him, in which he libelled me, alleging I‘d been fired by President @GEJonathan, as one of his spokesmen, for engaging in “criminal activities”

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

5-On the same day, President @GEJonathan released a statement stating that he never fired me, and that I served throughout his tenure with distinction and offered ‘meritorious’ service to Nigeria, and continue to enjoy his confidence

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

6-Mr @YeleSowore is presently in Abuja, where the office of the Secretary of the Government is located. He made no efforts to investigate or to contact me. He gave that interview out of spite because I exposed him as a blackmailer.

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

7-This is because on February 14, 2015, two weeks to the Nigerian election, Mr @YeleSowore had caused Sahara Reporters to knowingly publish lies against me, that I was an armed robber, who robbed a house and stole the sum of ₦25 million

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

8-Mr @YeleSowore refused every overture to retract the story. He maintained this stance until my New York lawyer wrote a letter to the @FordFoundation, which had also given Mr Sowore’s Sahara Reporters Media Foundation, vast sums of money.

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

9-Mr @YeleSowore is now using @SaharaReporters to assassinate the characters of Dr. Ngozi @NOIweala, a candidate for the esteemed position of DG of the World Trade Organisation. He has a long history of publishing falsehoods against her. 

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

10-Below are 15 verifiable lies Mr @YeleSowore caused @Saharareporters to publish with dates. I urge @macfound to ask an independent media audit body to investigate these stories to determine if they were ever true and why Sowore published

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

11-@YeleSowore and @Saharareporters published that former President @GEJonathan Looted ₦32b From Bayelsa State’s treasury, and is the ‘Richest President In Africa’ (Published on Feb 2, 2015)

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

12-@YeleSowore and @Saharareporters published that Dame Patience @GEJonathan caused the Dana Air crash, killing 153 people, because she wasted time landing in her Presidential Jet (Published on June 4, 2012, then deleted without apology)

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

13-@YeleSowore and @Saharareporters published that former President @GEJonathan gave out gold plated iPhones to guests at his daughter’s wedding (Published on April 13, 2014).

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

14-@YeleSowore and @Saharareporters published that former President @GEJonathan (a teetotaller) was too drunk to deliver his speech at the African Union (Published on May 25, 2013).

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

15-@YeleSowore and @Saharareporters published that $49 billion was missing from the Federal Government of Nigeria’s treasury (Published on various dates in February, 2014).

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

16-@YeleSowore and @Saharareporters published that former President @GEJonathan rejected British Offer To Rescue Kidnapped Chibok Schoolgirls (Published on various dates and officially debunked by the British Government on Mar 8, 2017).

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

17-@YeleSowore and @Saharareporters published that former President @GEJonathan led a 600 man delegation to the @UN (Published on September 22, 2013).

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

18-@YeleSowore and @Saharareporters published that former President @GEJonathan’s media team threatened a blogger with death (Published on Apr 25, 2011).

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

19-@YeleSowore and @Saharareporters published that former President @GEJonathan was persecuting @ChibuikeAmaechi, a known leader of false information to Saharareporters (Published on Oct 26, 2014).

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

20-@YeleSowore and @Saharareporters published that the @OfficialPDPNig and former President @GEJonathan were behind Boko Haram, a radical Islamic Terrorism group responsible for the deaths of several thousands (published on multiple dates).

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters

21-@YeleSowore and @Saharareporters published that former President @GEJonathan (a teetotaller) was a habitual drunkard (Published on Nov 22, 2013).

#MacArthurFoundationAndSaharaReporters