The businesswoman said days later, he contacted her again with what she considered an ‘odd’ request that prompted her to block him immediately.

“Uncle Lukman said he wanted to buy about 40 cows to give out as gifts to people and asked if I knew anyone that he could buy from. I felt uncomfortable about his request and blocked him,” she said.

The UK-based Nigerian woman would later reveal that communication ceased between them until in 2019, when she had a compelling reason to reach out to him.

She recounted, “In 2019, during the COVID-19 pandemic, flights were grounded and there was an urgent need for me to return to Nigeria because my mother was very sick. All flights coming into Nigeria were routed to Abuja airport, and I knew nobody in that state. It was while thinking of what to do that I remembered Uncle Lukman.”

She recalled reaching out to him through their once-severed channel of communication – Facebook Messenger.

“After contacting him on Facebook, I sent him my number and we started communicating through WhatsApp. I told him about my predicament and he promised to send a man to pick me up at the airport when my flight landed. He was in Kano at the time.

“When I got to Abuja, the said man was waiting and he helped me to settle down in a good hotel and left. By morning, he was there to pick me to the airport. I later called Uncle Lukman to thank him for the assistance,” she said.

Omoshalewa said a week later, she got a frantic call from Gbadegesin that he needed money to solve a major problem.

There is little love lost between Lukman Gbadegesin and Mrs Omoshalewa Akinleye, both indigenes of Oyo State, whose friendship kicked off innocently by happenstance on Facebook in 2017.

While one has royal ancestry, the other is a businesswoman gradually climbing the societal ladder.

However, years later, when the friendship got soured by financial transactions, the woman, who cut a helpless, frustrated figure, said she regrets not listening to her instincts to sever ties with the Oyo prince, whom she fondly referred to as Uncle Lukman.

She claimed the man took advantage of her kind-hearted nature to borrow the sum of N48m from her and refused to pay back.

Meanwhile, the man, who is well respected in society and among princes from the Oyo ruling houses contending for the revered Alaafin of Oyo stool, strongly believes all that transpired was orchestrated to truncate his emergence as a monarch.

Gbadegesin told PUNCH Investigations that he had paid Omoshalewa N30.2m, a sum he claimed was the actual amount in contention and maintained that he owed her nothing again.

The proof of payments and a letter detailing how the financial transactions took place were made available to our correspondent.

“Going by the documents I sent to you, my lawyer actually printed out everything she gave me. Everything was calculated and it came to about N30,140,000 but I have sent her N30.2m, of which I have all the receipts,” Gbadegesin claimed.

Meanwhile, Omoshalewa, on her part, also provided detailed conversations and other evidence to support her claims.

How it all started

Omoshalewa, while speaking with PUNCH Investigations, recalled meeting Gbadegesin online in 2017, adding that not long after, she attended a party in Ibadan, where unknown to her, Gbadegesin was in attendance

She recounted, “He sent me a message on Facebook Messenger that he saw me at the party. I was surprised because we had never met physically and so, I didn’t expect him to recognise me at the crowded party.”

The businesswoman said days later, he contacted her again with what she considered an ‘odd’ request that prompted her to block him immediately.

“Uncle Lukman said he wanted to buy about 40 cows to give out as gifts to people and asked if I knew anyone that he could buy from. I felt uncomfortable about his request and blocked him,” she said.

The UK-based Nigerian woman would later reveal that communication ceased between them until in 2019, when she had a compelling reason to reach out to him.

She recounted, “In 2019, during the COVID-19 pandemic, flights were grounded and there was an urgent need for me to return to Nigeria because my mother was very sick. All flights coming into Nigeria were routed to Abuja airport, and I knew nobody in that state. It was while thinking of what to do that I remembered Uncle Lukman.”

She recalled reaching out to him through their once-severed channel of communication – Facebook Messenger.

“After contacting him on Facebook, I sent him my number and we started communicating through WhatsApp. I told him about my predicament and he promised to send a man to pick me up at the airport when my flight landed. He was in Kano at the time.

“When I got to Abuja, the said man was waiting and he helped me to settle down in a good hotel and left. By morning, he was there to pick me to the airport. I later called Uncle Lukman to thank him for the assistance,” she said.

Omoshalewa said a week later, she got a frantic call from Gbadegesin that he needed money to solve a major problem.