I, Hon. Onyebuchi Offor, a representative of the highly respected Offor family in Ekwusigo LGA and by the grace of God, Minority Leader, Anambra State House of Assembly, bring you salutations from the Offor family.
Given the patent
falsehood running the gamut of the said publications, we consider that Sahara
Reporters has constituted itself the orchestrator and purveyor of a targeted
smear campaign against Sir Emeka Offor, possibly for economic gain and at the
behest of certain unscrupulous elements.
There is no
gainsaying the fact that Sir Emeka Offor is one of the most industrious and
accomplished Nigerians of his generation. He has attracted and enjoyed God's entrepreneurial
and pecuniary blessings for over three decades. He has in turn consistently
channeled those blessings toward the betterment of his fellow man (and woman
and child) by remarkable acts of philanthropy. Notable among the plethora of
honours and recognitions that he has received in that regard is the award by the
Rotary Club International for his immense contributions towards humanity and
the global war against polio.
We wish to make clear
that contrary to Sahara Reporters’ libelous assertions, the following is the
true and unimpeachable position with regard to Sir Emeka Offor:
·
Sir Emeka Offor is hale and hearty.
·
Sir Emeka Offor is a happily married
man with beautiful children whom he loves abundantly and who love him very much
in return. .
·
Sir Emeka Offor’s multinational
businesses continue to thrive and prosper by the grace of God. Similarly, his personal wealth continues to
endure for the benefit of the multitudes who have benefited from his legendary
largesse, munificence and altruism.
·
Planning by the family for the burial
of our late father, Pa Offor, continues apace. We find it disgusting that Sahara
Reporters chose to disrespect the memory of Pa Offor by bringing him into their
odious publications.
·
Sir Emeka Offor’s contributions to the
local community are innumerable; permit us to enlighten Sahara Reporters on a
few:
ü Sir
Emeka Offor contributed over 50% to the building of Oraifite Civic Centre which
stands as one of the best civic centres in the South-East of Nigeria.
ü Sir
Emeka Offor has run a remarkable university scholarship scheme for over twenty
years with the provision of a car and automatic employment for beneficiaries
graduating with first-class degrees. Thousands of Nigerians have been proud
beneficiaries of this scheme to date.
ü Sir
Emeka Offor runs a widows’ cooperative society with over 3,000 members as of
today. Under the auspices of this cooperative society, he sent a significant
number of the widows to India for training on managing a cooperative society. They have subsequently been able to establish
a microfinance bank and other thriving microenterprises.
ü Sir
Emeka Offor built and fully equipped one of the best Anglican churches in the
South East of Nigeria, located in Oraifite.
ü Sir
Emeka Offor singlehandedly constructed a major community road (off
Onitsha/Owerri road to Oraifite /Nnewi border). This project was executed by renowned
civil engineering and contracting firm, MCC.
ü Sir
Emeka Offor built Ekwusigo LGA Central Police Station .
ü Sir
Emeka Offor provided a free water scheme for the four quarters of Oraifite
(Unodu, Ezumeri, Irefi and Ifite).
ü Do
we talk about the various skill acquisition programs undertaken by youths of
Ekwusigo LGA under Sir Emeka Offor's Youth Empowerment Scheme? Just last year,
Sir Emeka Offor not only trained over one hundred youths in various skill
acquisition programs but also empowered them financially to start their own
businesses on completion of their training .
ü Sir
Emeka Offor is a serial job creator with over 3,000 Nigerians under his
payroll, indirectly creating over 10,000 jobs in addition.
ü Apart
from within his conglomerate, Sir Emeka has helped innumerable people secure
jobs in Nigeria and abroad. The breadwinners of many families are gainfully
employed today through the efforts of this great member of the Offor family.
Sir Emeka Offor’s
star of charity shines far beyond his immediate community. Again, we wish to mention but a few of his
national and international works of benevolence:
ü Partnering
with a U.S. based NGO, Sir Emeka Offor has through his eponymous Foundation
donated books, reading materials and computers worth over $22 million to
schools and communities in more than 18 countries in Africa including Nigeria.
ü Sir
Emeka Offor has established a glaucoma research centre at the Department of Ophthalmology,
University of Mainz, Germany and in conjunction, established a Nigerian
fellowship for cataract surgery and glaucoma management at the university.
ü Sir
Emeka Offor donated $2 million, which was matched with a grant of an additional
$4 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to support the Global
Polio Eradication Initiative launched by the Rotary International, the World
Health Organization, UNICEF and the U.S. Center for Disease Control.
ü Sir
Emeka Offor, through his Foundation, entered into a long-term agreement with
The Carter Centre to eliminate river blindness (‘onchocerciasis’) in Nigeria.
Pursuant thereto, Sir Emeka Offor provided a $10 million grant to the Carter
Center, the largest grant ever received by the Center, to facilitate the
Center’s efforts in eliminating river blindness in Nigeria.
In light of the above, we wish to ask Sahara
Reporters some pertinent questions:
·
What do you intend to achieve by the
malicious publications? To increase the traffic to your website or to advertise
your skills as character-assassination experts available for hire?
·
Why have you never reached out to Sir
Emeka Offor, in keeping with the ethics of journalism, directly or through his
conglomerate’s media relations’ representatives, to get his own side of any of
the stories you wished to peddle?
·
How much have you been paid to
deliberately and recklessly foment a campaign of calumny against Sir Emeka
Offor, including but not limited to bringing emotional and psychological
distress to his family and loved ones by exposing them to ridicule and odium?
Sahara Reporters has published over seven
sensationally libelous articles on Sir Emeka in the last thirty days. The lack of objectivity in your intentions is
self-evident in your relentless and ungrounded focus on one individual. We continue to wonder who might be the
sponsors to whom you have lent your connivance and instrumentality. We are aware that like any successful
businessman, Sir Emeka Offor has competitors who would benefit from his being
brought to disrepute.
We want to assure
Sahara Reporters however that we will not sit back and watch you continue your
attempts at discrediting our brother. We intend, as a family, to take advantage of all legal and equitable remedies available
to us in domestic and international law against Sahara Reporters IF WITHIN SEVEN (7) DAYS, you fail to
tender an unreserved apology to Sir Emeka Offor and his family for your defamatory
publications and character assassination.
We also demand that Sahara Reporters cease and desist henceforth from
making any other or further defamatory publications against Sir Emeka Offor or
any member of the Offor family.
Thank you.
Hon. Onyebuchi
Offor
(Minority
Leader, Anambra State House of Assembly)
For
the Offor family of Oraifite, Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State
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