By Pascal Oparada
America-based Nigerian actor, William Uchemba, has debunked claims that he defrauded a fellow US-based Nigerian human rights activist, Edafe Okporo and a United Nations envoy, the sum of $1,000 to help Okporo arrange a UN youth event in the US.
Uchemba was accused of using the UN’s name for fraud after messages of him requesting money from Okporo to arrange a delegation to a UN youth event in the US went viral on Sunday.
But Uchemba in a series of Instagram videos and message had denied the allegations saying, an impostor on Twitter had used his name to defraud Okporo.
He said he had warned his followers several times to be wary of fraudsters who use his name to create several social media accounts and defraud unsuspecting members of the public.
“First of all, I have said it tons of times, ‘Be careful with scammers.’ I have posted a lot of pictures of people using my name to defraud people. I have reported a lot of accounts.
“As a matter of fact, there is a guy on Twitter. I’m not on Twitter; I have never had a Twitter account. He has 15,000 followers posing to be me. His name is Williams Uchemba and a lot of people he has defrauded have called me to say, ‘There is somebody using that (name)’ and I don’t know what to do about that,” he said in the Instagram post.
He said he is not a UN ambassador in the United nations but “I’m the Deputy Nigerian Youth Representative, Youth Assembly at the United Nations,” he said.
“Secondly, let me also state again that I’m the Deputy Nigerian Youth Representative, Youth Assembly at the United Nations, not ‘UN ambassador in the United Nations.’ These are different bodies. The people that organise the youth assembly are the Friendship Ambassadors Foundation,” Uchemba said.
Uchemba said Okporo has since apologized and that he has accepted the apology.
Uchemba is famous for his comic videos on Instagram and popular “I don’t like what I hate,” posts on the app.
