Chaos at Radio One as OAP finally hands Joke Silva’s donation to bomb victim

Bomb victim Joy Musa has received the N50,000 Nigerian celeb Joke Silva donated to her live on Radio One 103.5FM.

Silva reportedly donated the money last August on a show anchored by On-Air Personality (OAP) Abigail Gogo. The show’s producer, however, told Newsroom the donation was made in September.

Abigail turned the money over to Joy Musa after accusing her of slandering her name, an accusation she also leveled on the chairman of the Bomb Victims Association of Nigeria (BVAN), Kayode Olatunji — himself a bomb victim.

“I don’t even want the money again!” Joy began shouting after Abigail’s allegations. “You people are lying against me,” she said as she stood and rolled on the floor with several of those present trying to calm her.

WATCH: Bomb victim breaks down after OAP accused her of slander

This happened on Thursday at Radio One lobby where some employees of the station also accused our correspondent of bias, and of being part of the “fraud to collect and share the money”.

“We will expose you today,” one of them shouted in our correspondent’s face.

Abigail eventually gave Joy the money amidst chaotic scenes as top Radio One officials tried, to no avail, calming colleagues and subordinates who seemed angry at Joy and our correspondent for “slandering” Abigail’s name.

BVAN’s Olatunji had told Newsroom Abigail may have spent the money on herself. But Abigail recently told Newsroom Joke Silva instructed the money be paid into a hospital bank account so Joy’s leg could be operated upon.

Herdsmen shot Joy in the leg when they killed her husband, brother, and four children in Dogo Nahawa, Jos, leaving her handicapped and unable to care for her two remaining children – a 13-year-old girl and a younger boy.

“Our plan was to raise N1.5 million for Joy and not just give her the N50,000 which is nothing compared to her condition,” Abigail said.

But a seemingly unending delay in getting Silva’s little donation across to the suffering mother of two raised eyebrows in Olatunji’s camp prompting BVAN to level accusations at Abigail.

“It’s a good thing they wanted to help Joy and we appreciate it,” Olatunji said. “But Joy had nothing and needed the N50,000 for her upkeep and we were wondering why it was taking too long to get the money across to her,” he said.

Newsroom spoke with Abigail in April and she didn’t mention the part where she said Silva instructed her to pay the money into a hospital account. She only said Joy needed apply for the funds and also present her medical records – something she wasn’t able to do until about two weeks ago.

Abigail also said plans were on ground to raise more money for Joy. She opened a WhatsApp group and reached out to celebrities to help Joy. She, however, informed Newsroom recently she was deleting the group as people weren’t turning up. She deleted the group on Tuesday.

A week after Joy applied for the N50,000, Radio One didn’t release the money. Abigail said it was because almost everyone involved the in the case was busy with a major event at the station.

Abigail, this week, told Newsroom Silva instructed the money be paid into a hospital account and not directly to Joy. Several OAPs said the same thing but Silva is yet to confirm this claim to our correspondent who contacted her handlers.

Two days after Newsroom published Olatunji’s allegations against Abigail, she called Joy Musa and handed her the money even as several OAPs and Radio One employees called the bomb victim a fraud.

“She’s a fraud. She called several of our stations with different names and same story to beg for money,” one of the said.

“She called one show and claimed to be Rosemary,” a Radio One employee said. “She claimed to be a Boko Haram victim but she’s not. She’s a herdsmen victim and even her story doesn’t add up because she keeps changing it.”

Abigail herself made a similar allegation. She also accused Newsroom of jumping on Olatunji’s comments to gain cheap popularity.

“I can see you need traffic for your blog but I won’t give you that pleasure of using my story to drive traffic,” she told our correspondent in a WhatsApp chat.

“I’ll advice you to pull down that post and get your facts right from me before publishing. If I decide to take legal action it may not go down well with you. I hope she (Joy) also told you that she has been calling from my former station Bond FM with a different name?

“I have got detailed facts on this issue and can sue you for defamation of character. You mentioned that Joke Silva gave me cash (we never did). That is an incorrect postulation.

“Secondly, Joy never knew the amount given and I was the one who mentioned the amount to her so if I wanted to misappropriate that meagre fund, would I have told her the amount given? I give you 24 hours to get your facts right or you will hear from my lawyer.

“If I wasn’t sympathetic towards her course I wouldn’t even have put myself out there for her,” she said.

Olatunji said he appreciated Abigail’s concerns but wondered why the OAP wouldn’t “just give the woman her money.”

“First, you said you would give her the money if she applied and then you later said Silva instructed the money be paid into a hospital account.

“Why not give her the N50,000 and then go ahead to raise millions for her? Why turn around to accuse her of lying? These are the questions I want answers to,” he said.

In our conversations with Abigail (before the first publication), she didn’t call Joy Musa a fraud. She said, among other things, that she was going to ask Radio One for airtime some time this month so she could solicit funds for the bomb victim. On Tuesday, however, Abigail suggested she suspected Joy Musa could be shady.

Here’s Abigail announcing the closure of the celeb WhatsApp group she opened for Joy

Joy Musa denied the accusations leveled against her saying she didn’t understand why they all turned on her.

“They all know I am Joy Musa and that I also bear Rosemary,” she told us amid tears. “All of them know this. They know I am the same person. So I don’t understand why they are accusing me of calling with different names.”

WATCH: That time Joy Musa attempted suicide

“All I know is that I was attacked in Jos and lost my husband and four children and my brother. They told me herdsmen carried out the attack. Some told me it was Boko Haram. All I know is that my life changed that day, and for the bad.

“I never believed I would be in a situation where I would be so helpless that I would have to beg other people to feed my children. They are no longer going to school.

“We are also about to be thrown out of the place where we have been hiding our heads. I can live under the bridge if that is the new low but I fear for my children. My girl could become a prostitute and my little boy an armed robber,” she said.