On the verge of employment
termination at The Punch, Mr Abayomi has denied being the owner of Instablog9ja
and has vowed to sue Linda Ikeji in the coming days.
FollowingLinda
Ikeji‘s revelation of a certain John Abayomi who she reported was the owner of
the popular and controversial Instagram page InstaBlog9ja, the employers of the
man have swung into action almost immediately, vowing to get to the bottom of
it and possibly fire him if indeed he’s the brain behind it.
In the LIB
report, it was alleged that Abayomi who is currently the online editor of Punch
Newspapers and a former editor of Vanguard News had been running the platform
since 2015, combining it with his daily duty at the 42-year-old media house.
Instablog9jahas
grown to be one of the most followed handles in the Nigerian media space with
1.7 million followers. Using the Linda Ikeji model for publishing gossip and
bizarre news, it usurped many a gossip site. Ironically, it was on IB9J that
the identity of Linda Ikeji’s “baby daddy”, Sholaye Jeremi was first revealed.
Before then she had hidden his identity, ostensibly because he’s a married man.
While it is not clear if this was a case of her paying him back, what is known
is that her story set in motion a chain of events that held the entire Punch
Newspapers in a daze today.
Inside
sources confirmed that no sooner had the news broke did several board members
of Punch gather at the premises of the newspaper on Lagos/Ibadan Expressway for
an emergency meeting.
”Abayomi
was summoned into a high-level editorial meeting, along with his bosses and the
management and everyone is confused about the whole situation” Our sources told
us.
Our source
further revealed that the main bone of contention was the issue of “moonlight”,
the act of having a second job while in full-time employment. We gather that
the rule is very strict at Punch Newspapers and the Abayomi’s case is of
extreme importance because while the newspaper has a paltry 225,000 followers
on Instagram, Instablog on its part has nearly eight times as much- while
incurring no overhead costs and on company time.
Our source
went on: “Everyone is confused and asking questions. Mr Abayomi is a dedicated
man who is always in the office. I wonder where he would get the spare time to
handle a blog like Instablog9ja, so I think it is untrue until investigations
are complete.”
At the
emergency meeting, Abayomi himself was said to have denied the allegation
strenuously. He maintained that the report was untrue and a fabrication and
vowed to sue Linda Ikeji in the coming days for libel, false accusation and
defamation of character.
The
identity of the owner and handlers of Instablog has been a mystery to many
social media users in Nigeria. There is zero trace of who started it in 2015 or
if a team made up of different individuals run it. At various times, a number
of names have been touted as owners, including “Lillian” and Hauwa Mohammed of
Jaruma Empire. Even when the platform started taking on adverts, the official
name on their bank accounts is “Instablog9ja”.
While the
management and board of Punch Newspapers took Abayomi at his words today, they
have promised to continue investigations into the matter; even as the embattled
individual on his part is determined to clear his name.
@societyreporters
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