A former Executive Director of the Bank of Industry (BOI), Jonathan Tobin might have gotten himself into a defamation fiasco having alleged that a dead woman in his home community, Finima in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, was unfaithful to her husband while alive.

He accused one of the woman’s sons, Dagogo Tobin, who is the chief-elect of his chieftaincy house, Tobin (Konibo-ye-Awanta) House of Finima Community in Bonny Kingdom, of not being his father’s son.

This was contained in a message the BOI boss sent to his kinsman, Dagogo Tobin, and was said to have later released on social media using one of the messaging applications, WhatsApp, which sources told Kristina Reports has now been circulated across several WhatsApp groups.

The message is reproduced below:

“Amasenibo Dagogo,

In view of your desperation, I wish to bring this incontrovertible truth about who you are and your identity in Tobin House.

1. Have you wondered why you are tall and dark and Alamina, Ibifiri and others are average and light.

2. The truth is that Elder J A Tobin is not your biological father.

3. You are not Awanta/ Tobin by father or mother.

4. You don’t belong to Tobin Chieftaincy House.

5. By Ibani tradition and customs, you have no right to aspire to occupy any position of significance in Tobin House.

6. What this means is that you are a usurper and every decision you have taken till date is null and void.

7. An affidavit has been deposited at the High Court in PH which will be activated if you remain recalcitrant.

8. You are advised to take the honorable part and bury this burning inordinate ambition.

9. However, if you remain stubborn which I expect, I will be left with no option than to trigger the affidavit calling for a DNA test to be carried out on Alamina, Ibifiri and others. The result will surely be an embarrassment.

10. I therefore urge you to quietly bury this your chief elect idea and I will quietly withdraw the affidavit.

May the Lord give you the grace and wisdom to follow the path of honor.

Amaopusenibo J. Tobin.”

Jonathan Tobin confirmed to Kristina Reports that he authored the above statement and sent it personally to Dagogo Tobin, and later had one of his nephews share it on social media, boasting that he would escalate the issue should the Tobin House chief-elect refuse his advice to withdraw from the chieftaincy race.

Unconfirmed reports have it that the BOI bigshot, who is a holder of the Amaopusenibo (senior citizen) title of Bonny Kingdom, in his alleged desperation to become the chief and head of Tobin House, was reportedly bent on destroying any and everything on his path to achieving his ambition, including defaming a long dead married woman.

Reacting to the development, Dagogo Tobin told Kristina Reports that it was “unbelievable that, in the desperation of Jonathan Tobin to become chief, he would take his pettiness, his bitterness, his hate to a dead woman. How can someone in his right senses accuse a dead woman of infidelity, because that’s what he has actually done.”

“By saying I am not my father’s biological son, he is saying that my mother, a married woman, a bonafide Bonny woman, was unfaithful to her husband. How does my mother now answer to this accusation? Is she going to rise from the dead and respond to him?”

He indicated that he was willing and ready to make himself available for the DNA test as solicited by the Bank of Industry boss, stressing that it was left for members of the Tobin House, especially, the Elders Council who elected him, to respond to what he referred to as “an assault on the Tobin House”.

“It is left for the members of the Tobin House, the elders, who Jonathan has accused of electing a non-member of the House as their chief, and, especially, the women of Tobin House, Finima Community, and Bonny Kingdom, as a whole, whose sensibilities have been desecrated.”

“What our Amaopusenibo has done is that he has demonstrated that even in death, no Tobin House woman, no Finima woman, no Bonny woman will be left to rest in peace.”

Responding to an inquiry from Kristina Reports, the Chairman of the Rivers State chapter of the Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA), Adata Bio-Briggs, said the matter is that of defamation, urging the victim or her family to seek legal redress in court.

Also, reacting to the issue, an official of the Bonny Women Forum (BWF), who preferred anonymity, referred to the allegation by the ex-Executive Director of the Bank of Industry (BOI) as an abomination, an insult on Bonny womanhood, an attack on womanhood as a whole, wondering the state of mental health of the ex-banker.

“Is he saying that the woman left her husband and slept with a stranger and had a son and imposed him on her husband, a bonafide elder, a highly respected citizen of Bonny Kingdom?”

“How can a sane person accuse a dead woman of not being faithful to her husband? Are we going to call on the dead woman now to answer him? I am wondering if the Central Bank and the Bank of Industry, where they said he was working, had him do a psychiatric evaluation before appointing him to such a high office. Is he okay?”

It was yet unclear if the BOI boss had made good his threat of instituting legal proceedings to have the court to compel the Tobin House chief-elect to undergo a paternity test as at the time of this report.