How Cubana Chief Priest abandoned his Kenyan baby mama, son

This is to announce that DPA International (DPA) has been retained by Ms. Linda A. Otieno, a Kenyan national, to pursue her child support claim against Mr. Pascal Chibuike Okechukwu, a/k/a Cubana Chief Priest, a/k/a Money Na Water, a Nigerian, in respect of their child, Liam Pascal Okechukwu, born on January 3, 2023, (hereinafter referred to as the “Child’).

After due consultations and a thorough analysis of the history of this case, we chose to make this public announcement at this point. In deciding to go public with this statement, we took into consideration the fact that when the story of the pregnancy for the Child first came to light in April of 2022, Mr. Okechukwu leveraged his money, power and social media influence to intimidate, malign, cajole, harass, threaten, scare, and silence Ms. Otieno, and ultimately forced her to stay away from Nigeria and not take any steps to pursue her child support claim against him. We see real likelihood of Mr. Okechukwu resorting the same tactics or worse at this moment when Ms. Otieno summons the courage to ask Mr. Okechukwu to provide support for their child.

Furthermore, there has been significant public interest in this case, as has been seen in the social media frenzy the story has attracted. It is therefore important to present to the public an accurate and fair account of what happened between Mr. Okechukwu and Ms. Otieno that led them have a child together. This will save the public the wild speculations and false narratives that have made it to the social media, as well as protecting the weaker party (Ms. Otieno) and the Child from the emotional harm that could emanate from the orchestrated falsehood by the stronger and more influential party.

Having stated the purpose of this announcement, let us make it clear what is not our purpose. Even though Ms. Otieno is unhappy with the way Mr. Okechukwu has treated her and their child, she still recognizes him as the father of her child. She respects him and she prays for him constantly. According to her: “He is actually a good person. He is much nicer person that who you see on social media.” She never thought that he would marry her and she has never pursued marriage with him as an objective. They were friends and they liked each other enough to share sexual intimacy. Her aim for coming to DPA is not to humiliate or tarnish Mr. Okechukwu. She only wants him to support their child, and she has done every other thing possible to get his attention, but he turned his back to them. The task of raising a child alone is too daunting for Ms. Otieno. She has been frustrated by the situation and she needs help for their child. Coming to DPA is her last resort after everything else has failed. Ms. Otieno also conveyed to us her regrets for how this whole thing must be affecting Mr. Okechukwu’s wife. She truly did not know that Mr. Okechukwu was married until after she discovered she was pregnant. DPA will try amicable approaches to resolving this problem, respectful of all the parties, particularly of Mr. Okechukwu in consideration of his public image. However, we must make it clear: if the amicable approaches fail, DPA will pursue approaches that could compel Mr. Okechukwu. That is something we do not pray for, but are otherwise ready for.

Ms. Otieno and Mr. Okechukwu met in Lagos for the first time on April 17, 2022. Ms. Otieno, then 28-years-old, had traveled from her home country, Kenya, to Lagos to visit her friend for a wedding event and use the opportunity to see the biggest city in Nigeria. She had arrived in Nigeria in February, 2022. She had planned to stay in Nigeria for few weeks. She had spent all but three days of her planned period in Nigeria when, on April 17, 2022, she met Mr. Okechukwu. The meeting occurred at Prime Chinese Restaurant in Victoria Island. She had gone to the restaurant for dinner. On her way out, as she was walking to the car, a man stepping out of his own car and came up to her and began to talk to her. The man asked her “Do you know me?” and she said no. The man was surprised that she did not know anything about him. He then introduced himself as Pascal. Ms. Otieno still did not know who he was, he asked her what country she was from. She told him Kenya. He seemed excited and he said her: “Welcome to Nigeria”. He took time tell her who he was. He then invited her back into the restaurant. But she told him that she was already on her way back to her apartment at 1004 Victoria Island, and that she was tired. But he pleaded with her, telling to give him just a few minutes. Out of politeness and considering his gentle manners and pleas, she followed him back into the restaurant, where the two talked further and got to know each other a bit better. They exchanged numbers and agreed to speak again soon. She then left and returned to her apartment.

As the two talked over their drinks at their first meeting, Mr. Okechukwu pressed on with expressions of interest in friendship with Ms. Otieno. He expressed strong desires to spend more time with her. Ms. Otieno informed him that while she would not have minded meeting him again and spending more time with him, it was unfortunate that they met just three days before she was to return to Kenya and that her ticket was set for her departure date. They continued this discussion on phone that night and the next morning. At this point, Mr. Okechukwu offered to pay to extend Ms. Otieno’s ticket so she could stay longer in Lagos. Ms. Otieno had enjoyed her first ever visit to Nigeria and did not mind extending her stay in Lagos. At this point, for Ms. Otieno, it was just a friendship with a “nice and interesting man”. The feeling of friendship and attraction gradually became mutual. Apart from her ticket that had to be extended, she also had to pay to extend her stay at the apartment. Again, Mr. Okechukwu offered to pay to extend her accommodation.

In the days following their first meeting, Mr. Okechukwu invited Ms. Otieno to Intercontinental Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos. He would sent a driver to bring Ms. Otieno from 1004 Apartments in Victoria Island to his hotel and the same driver would take her back after her time with Mr. Okechukwu. During these initial meetings, Mr. Okechukwu would tell Ms. Otieno that she was beautiful and humble “unlike the Nigerian girls” and that he liked her gentle, humble and easy-going manners. He expressed strong romantic interest in Ms. Otieno and she eventually believed him. Though the issue of Mr. Okechukwu’s marital status was only casually mentioned in their discussions, Mr. Okechukwu gave every impression that he was not married and that he wanted a serious relationship with Ms. Otieno. He would constantly tell her: “I will take good care of you”. This is something every woman wants to hear.

On her second visit to Mr. Okechukwu’s hotel room, the two became sexually intimate. During their first time, Ms. Otieno demanded that Mr. Okechukwu should use condom. But Mr. Okechukwu adamantly resisted. He chose to have an instant HIV test with an instant HIV test-kit, which he had with him. They conducted the test on the spot. Ms. Otieno was still not comfortable with that. But Mr. Okechukwu was persistent and she ultimately relented. That was how the two began to have sexual intercourse each time they met at Mr. Okechukwu’s hotel room. For a period of four weeks cumulatively from 20th April, they had sexual intercourse frequently including on three occasions when she slept over in his hotel room. By paying to extend her ticket, paying for her accommodation and feeding, Mr. Okechukwu gradually gained control over Ms. Otieno and she began to depend on him. He extended her ticket for two months and paid for her accommodation for that length of time. Note that the concern they had at the initial point of sexual intimacy was about STD, and never about pregnancy. It is fair to say that they both understood that pregnancy was a distinct possibility of what they were doing, but decided not to worry about it. You cannot single out any one of them to blame for the pregnancy. It was a joint decision and it should be a joint responsibility in dealing with the consequences of their actions.

Before Ms. Otieno left Nigeria, she noticed she was pregnant. She told Mr. Okechukwu that she was pregnant and suggested abortion. Mr. Okechukwu said no to abortion. According to Ms. Otieno, Mr. Okechukwu said something to the effect that it is a taboo in his place to abort a pregnancy. He advised Ms. Otieno to return to Kenya and that he would take care of the child.

A few days after Ms. Otieno returned to Kenya, she noticed she could not reach Mr. Okechukwu because he suddenly blocked her access to him. Thus, the two had no further opportunity to discuss the situation in a rational way. Ms. Otieno was confused as to what to make out of Mr. Okechukwu’s behavior. She continued to seek opportunity to discuss the matter with him. Abortion was no longer a possibility at this time. After six months into the pregnancy, unable to reach him and unable to afford the cost of ante natal and worried that she might not be able to pay the hospital bills, Ms. Otieno became desperate. This was the time she reached she went on social media in utter desperation.

When the story appeared on social media and Mr. Okechukwu realized that Ms. Otieno had spoken to some bloggers, he got very mad. He then unblocked Ms. Otieno and began to communicate with her again. But this time, he was merely venting his anger for the publication and he repeatedly threatened to arrest Ms. Otieno for tarnishing his name. Ms. Otieno tried to explain to him the pressures that forced her to go public with their case. But Mr. Okechukwu remained angry and would mock her and call her names.

After she gave birth to the child, Ms. Otieno sent a message with the picture of the baby to Mr. Okechukwu. In her message she wrote: “Your son is here”. Mr. Okechukwu seemed ambivalent, not sure what to do about the baby. At some point he said something to the effect that he would need a test and if it is his child, he would take responsibility and “I will still give you another belle”. He sent her the sum of N300,000. Then, again, Okechukwu blocked her access to him and began to avoid her all over.

Mr. Okechukwu seemed to have gone to extreme extents to avoid Ms. Otieno. For instance, when Mr. David Adeleke, a/k/a Davido, performed a concert in Nairobi, Kenya, in March of 2024, Mr. Okechukwu who had followed Davido to all other concerts all over the world calculatedly avoided accompanying David to his concert in Kenya. Ms. Otieno had thought that the concert would be an opportunity to have a word with Mr. Okechukwu about their child. When Ms. Otieno realized that Mr. Okechukwu did not accompany Davido to Kenya, she tried to meet with Davido in order to seek his assistance in persuading Mr. Okechukwu to support their child. Davido knew she was at his hotel waiting in the lobby to see him. Davido avoided seeing her. In fact, on the day she arrived at the hotel and waited at the lobby from 11:00am to 4:00pm, Davido did not step out of the hotel until five minutes after Ms. Otieno left. That was when Davido came down and ran into a waiting vehicle. It is believed that Davido actively avoided her. While she was waiting at the lobby for Davido, another Nigerian musician, Mr. Iyanya Onoyom Mbuk, best known by his stage name Iyanya, met her at the hotel lobby with the child and had a conversation with her. She asked Iyanya to help her talk to Mr. Okechukwu. Iyanya seeing her and the child appeared compassionate. He was nice and kind. He carried the baby and said: “This na Cubana Chief Priest pikin”. As Iyanya went back into the hotel, she pleaded with him to inform Davido that she was waiting to have a word with him. She also pleaded with Davido’s clue members to put let Davodo know she wanted to speak with him. They took pictures of her and the child. So, Ms. Otieno believes that Davido was aware of her mission at that hotel that day, but carefully avoided her, apparently in order not to displease his friend, Mr. Okechukwu.

Apart from the incident in Kenya, Ms. Otieno had reached out to other friends of Mr. Okechukwu. She contacted one Tunde Ednut, a US-based Nigerian social media influencer, and requested him to help her put a word across to Mr. Okechukwu. But Tunde Ednut refused, not that he doubted the paternity of the child, but because he did not want to offend Mr. Okechukwu. Mr. Ednut replied her that “he has refused to have anything to do with the child” and then quickly deleted his reply. This was how, the friends of Mr. Okechukwu all refused to help because they did not want to offend Mr. Okechukwu. Interestingly, none of these friends ever expressed any doubt about the paternity of the child. They simply chose not to offend their friend by trying to get him to support his child.

From the beginning to the end, this case is about abuse of power and influence, leveraging of financial muscle and influence for nefarious purpose. Regardless of any doubts about the legitimacy of the origin of his wealth, there is no doubt that Mr. Okechukwu has a lot of money. He is seen displaying money on videos and making it clear to the world that he has limitless financial resources. It does not matter how genuine those displays are, the fact is that many young Nigerians have come to see him as a man with too much power who could do anything and get away with it. Hence, he could easily threaten people with having them arrested. As is well known, in Nigeria, there is no shortage of police officers who would arrest anybody once you pay them enough in bribe. Therefore, nobody would like to displease Mr. Okechukwu or to offend him. He has used this influence in clearly abusive way to try to silence his ex-lover in order to deny paternity and abandon his child. He displays power and influence in a way that leaves no doubt in the minds of many that he could harm you of you dared to oppose him. This certainly worked on Ms. Otieno and frightened her.

Ms. Otieno has suffered extreme hardship as a result of the fact that Mr. Okechukwu refused to support their child. She has been driven to depression and suicide ideation as a result of the hardship she faces. Currently, she struggles to feed their child. She works as an Uber driver in Nairobi just to make ends meet. The case between Ms. Otieno and Mr. Okechukwu has been like a struggle between an ant and an elephant. Hence, our readiness to help her.

On the subject of sexual exploitation, so much depends on power and influence. When it is a rich man with high libido and a poor beautiful woman, the exploitation is total and absolute. The structure of power is therefore critical in any legal analysis. Whether we are discussing the ongoing criminal case of Mr. Sean Combs, a/k/a Puff Daddy or this evolving civil case between Ms. Otieno and Mr. Okechukwu, the pattern is the same. Someone has so much power that he feels he could treat the poor like a door mat. Mr. Okechukwu has no doubt that this is his child. That is why he has not accepted to undergo a DNA paternity test. Instead, he feels confident that Ms. Otieno is too small to hold him accountable. He also takes advantage of the cultural prejudice against women in Nigeria, believing that when a man and a woman have sex out of wedlock, the woman would be condemned while the man is praised. Mr. Okechukwu hopes to ride on such cruel and unjust treatment of women.

We are calling on Mr. Okechukwu to respect himself and respect the law. He has only two options. First, he should accept paternity and work toward an arrangement for co-parenting. Alternatively, he should submit himself to a DNA paternity test. If he is not the father, he will not pay the cost of the testing. But if he is the father, he will pay the cost of testing and substantial compensation to Ms. Otieno for lying against her and for abandoning his child since birth. Also, given his threats to get her arrested, we are aware that he could go to any extent to harm either Ms. Otieno or her representatives, including paying the police or someone else to do it. We are taking every precaution. That is why Ms. Otieno’s case will be coordinated from the United States with both Nigeria and Kenya as fields of operation.

In agreeing to represent Ms. Otieno in this case, she signed an agreement with us that she will not give interviews or speak with the press without first clearing with DPA. The reason for that is that we do not want any confusion if any blogger or journalist tries to quote her. If you read anywhere that Ms. Otieno said anything to any blogger on this case, you should know that such is false. She will speak only through DPA for the time being.

Thank you.

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