Delta oil magnate Sholaye Jeremi fingered as the father of Linda Ikeji's baby son

DELTA State-born oil magnate Sholaye Jeremi appears to have accepted that he is the father of controversial blogger Linda Ikeji's son Jayce who was born earlier this week after he refused to debunk her identifying him as the baby's dad.

Earlier this week, Ms Ikeji, 36, the renown feminist, named Mr Jeremi as the father of her son who she gave birth to in an Atlanta hospital in the US.  Speculation about him being the father of the boy grew after Ms Ikeji gave her baby his surname but Mr Sholaye  has kept mum about the whole scenario until recently.

Yesterday, however, a story appeared on several social media platforms, in which it was reported that Mr Jeremi issued a statement on his Instagram account acknowledging he is the bay's father. It read: "God has blessed me beyond measures. I thank him for life and my wonderful gift he bestowed on me this month.”

However, in a statement released by his media aide, Obafemi Ajayi, Mr Jeremi revealed that he has no social media account and the one in circulation must have been created by mischief makers. Mr Ajayi, however, did not dispute the fact that Mr Jeremi is the father of the baby and his statement avoided addressing the matter.

Mr Ajayi said: “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 that Mr 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."

He added that the reports are just an attempt to disparage the hardworking oil magnate and normally Mr Sholaye would not have responded to the poorly choreographed bunch of lies. Although appealing to the general public not to take the evil-doers seriously, Mr Ajayi did not dispute Ms Ikeji's claim.