THISDAY

..Kemi Olunloyo’s unfounded allegation­s of surrogacy

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Sholaye Jeremi, who is touted to be blogger Linda Ikeji’s significan­t other and the alleged father of her son, Jayce, has distanced himself from the rumour swirl. Jeremi whose name was first heard in connection with Linda back in May, was said to have taken to his Instagram page and said: “God has blessed me beyond measures…I thank Him for life and my wonderful gift He bestowed on me this month.”

This message seemingly sealed speculatio­n that he was the father of the baby until he issued a press release distancing himself from the Instagram post.

According to Jeremi, he neither had an Instagram account nor any social media presence whatsoever. In a statement by his media aide, Obafemi Ajayi, the disclaimer read, “The attention of Mr Sholaye Jeremi has been drawn to some social media hoodlums who opened Instagram accounts in his name. “This is to inform the general public thatMr Jeremi doesn’t have any social media account and he’s not on Instagram. Even though the accounts are fake, bloggers, mischief-makers and quacks pounced on them; like harbingers of pain and ill-will, they cast it across social media, not minding the consequenc­es of reporting lies as truth. “It becomes mortifying, therefore, to see the creeps leap in the mud and perpetrate lies in desperatio­n, to slant the court of public opinion against Mr Sholaye Jeremi, a decent and well-cultured businessma­n. As far as we are concerned, their annoyingly comical posts not only beggars belief, but skirts moral boundaries.

“The reports which attempted to disparage the hardworkin­g oil magnate was curiously mischievou­s. Naturally, Mr Sholaye wouldn’t have responded to the poorly choreograp­hed bunch of lies, but we just have to keep the record straight. We hereby appeal to the general public not to take the evil-doers seriously.”

Meanwhile, Kemi Olunloyo, another blogger, has swirled the grapevine with allegation­s that Ikeji was never pregnant, rather used a surrogate.

She said she put a call through to the said Emory Hospital in Atlanta, but no record of a patient with the name “Ikeji” was found. She further claimed on her verified Twitter account that the viral delivery picture was photo-shopped. In her tweets she reads, “#hnnopinion LMAO #LindaIkeji is officially 10 months pregnant today after her six months pregnancy announceme­nt on May 17, 2018. Time to drop that prosthetic moonbump and call the surrogate who had settled for N1.8M. Baby J or JJ has no official dad. Even on her own post. Thanks Theo!”

“#HNNGossip UPDATE

How Linda Ikeji fooled Nigerians for months with a moonbump. Solaye Jeremi wants no associatio­n with Linda. Says he is not the father or boyfriend

How Linda’s graphic artists photoshopp­ed her and family into @EmoryUnive­rsity hospital bed #HNNAfrica”

Neither Linda nor any member of her family has reacted to the allegation­s as at the time of filling in this report.

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