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Track queen, Blessing Okagbare has expressed dissatisfaction over the use of her image and footage by a group campaigning for President Goodluck Jonathan, saying that group erred by not seeking her approval.
In an advertorial by GoodHouse Nigeria tagged GEJ Okagbare, which had been running on various electronic media in Nigeria and also on Youtube, the video of the reigning African queen and Commonwealth Games gold medallist was used to detail the achievements made by the government, especially around the Nigerian railway system.
Reacting on Thursday via her twitter account from her base in Los Angeles, USA, Okagbare said her attention was drawn to the advertorial by friends and relatives in Nigeria about two months ago.
She wrote: “I just wanted to be patient at first, but my agent is not happy because he thinks I am a woman and very far from home too.
“Someone out there is using my image, footage and everything I have worked for to make money through advert and campaign without seeking my approval. If an advert is being made with my footage and I am not aware of it, it shows how some of my countrymen back home can be so selfish, disrespecting and have no regard for people’s privacy”.
Recall that two years ago, Okagbare was quoted during the All Nigerian Open Championship in Calabar lamenting that the Federal Government was not doing enough to support her athletics career saying that the only support she got was from Delta State government.
A statement sent by her agent reads: “Now, I am here struggling on my own to pay my coach, nutritionist, doctor and others to make sure I am in good shape for the All African Games and the IAAF World Championship in Beijing, China, later in the year, and some people back home are using my image and footage for presidential campaign advertorial without seeking for my approval.
“This is fraudulent because I am totally not in support of it. We called the people (GoodHouse Nigeria) and they denied using my image and footage for PDP presidential advertorial. Who did it then? Why are they lying?”