By Amos Aar, Makurdi
A lecturer in the Political Science Department, Benue State University (BSU), Makurdi, Mrs Ahemen Ortwer, has denied allegations that she has been involved in extra-marital affairs with former Benue State governor and current Senator representing Benue North-East Senatorial district, Gabriel Suswam.
Benue social media space has been agog since Monday, March 21, 2022 with the salacious story of the leakage of an audio alleged to be of the secret recording of a private conversation between Mrs Ortwer and her friend, Mrs Mimi Orya, in which she was said to have narrated her sexual encounters with a senator interpreted from the conversation to be Senator Gabriel Suswam.
In the conversation recorded in Tiv language, Mrs Ortwer was alleged to be the one telling Mrs Orya graphic details of an all-night sexual escapade she had had with an unnamed Senator, who was interpreted in the social media to be Senator Suswam, an identity said to have been deduced from the conversation between the two friends.
Mrs Mimi Orya is the wife of former Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), Chief Roberts Orya, an aspirant for Benue’s 2023 governorship race.
Mrs Ortwer, who is the wife of a Nigerian Air Force Officer, spoke on the scandal in a brief telephone chat with National Record, denying the authenticity of the viral audio trending in the social media.
According to Mrs Ortwer, there was no such conversation with Mrs Orya and that she has never had anything to do with Senator Suswam.
She added that in the tape, Senator Suswam’s name was not mentioned throughout what she claimed to be a doctored audio and wondered why people were spreading false rumours using his name.
According to her, an ill-mannered person who knows her closeness with Mrs Orya imitated their voices using modern technology to destroy her marriage and tarnish the image of Senator Suswam.
“I don’t have any affair with Senator Suswam. With modern technology today, it is possible for someone to doctor my voice with the aim of ruining my marriage and tarnishing the image of Senator Suswam. I wonder why people are using Suswam’s name because he was not mentioned throughout that malicious audio,” Mrs Ortwer told National Record.
But in her reaction to attacks on her from members of the public on social media for allegedly betraying her close friend by orchestrating the secret recording of her conversation with Mrs Ortwer, Mrs Mimi Orya released an audio on social media in which she denied recording any conversation with her friend, Mrs Ortwer.
She, however, claimed that a lady who had accompanied Mrs Ortwer had deliberately, but secretly, put her phone on recording mode and left it where they (Mrs Ortwer and Mrs Orya) had sat to discuss in order to record their conversation.
But Mrs Orya’s audio obviously controverted her friend’s denial when she stated that the secret recording of their conversation captured all that Mrs Ortwer confided in her on the alleged sexual ‘escapades’ with Senator Suswam.
According to Mrs Orya, the lady who plotted the secret recording of their conversation returned about 30 minutes later to pick her phone, giving an excuse that she forgot it there, only to later circulate the damaging content on the cyberspace.
Mrs Orya further claimed that the lady was Mrs Ortwer’s fan and that she apparently targeted her (Mrs Orya) to get their confidential conversation believing that as women who are close friends, they are like to share personal secrets.
“There is a very damaging audio going around on the social media of a conversation with me [sic] and my friend. Apparently, somebody she came with that day left her phone, purposely, consciously dropped her phone, to record me since she knows that Ahemen [Mrs Ortwer] is my friend and we must be having private, secret discussions.
“She [Mrs Ortwer] came with the person, that the girl is a fan and she’s been wanting [sic] to just say hello. She sat with us, and she left. She forgot her phone; she came back after 30 minutes that she left her phone.
“So in the voice recording, Ahemen said a lot of things about her escapades with her boyfriend and so many things. So the message out there is that I did the recording.
“The person, I’m sure 100 per cent; the person was targeting me, thought I would reveal secrets, my private life, discuss it with Ahemen; but unfortunately there was nothing; it was just Ahemen; I don’t even know until this moment, somebody sent me that voice note and I kept thinking; I kept trying to remember when this conversation happened because I don’t even remember; but I remember that day she [Mrs Ortwer] brought someone and the person left her phone, and, I am sure the person knows I have a problem with Ahemen, Ahemen has a problem with her husband. I called Ahemen out and you know, the person is trying to use that to destroy me. I don’t know whether it is me or it is Ahemen,” Mrs Orya said in her released audio.
In the secret audio recording, Senator Suswam was alleged to have been in the relationship with Mrs Ortwer since 2009 and had successful facilitated about 20 employment opportunities to Mrs Ortwer’s family members among other gifts.
