Social media personality, Blessing Okoro, popularly known as Blessing CEO, has confessed to deliberately fabricating a breast cancer diagnosis to attract financial donations from members of the public.
The controversial influencer made the shocking admission during an interview with social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, better known as VeryDarkMan, in a video shared on Thursday.
In the interview, Blessing CEO disclosed that she devised the cancer narrative as a desperate move to raise money amid mounting financial pressure arising from an ongoing dispute involving a man identified as Dr Onuoha Okeigwe.
She admitted that although medical examinations had revealed a lump in her breast, doctors had not diagnosed it as cancerous.
According to her, she deliberately misrepresented the medical finding to generate sympathy and encourage people to send her money.
“Honestly, I do not have cancer. The truth is, I had gone for a check-up a few months ago and they found a lump on my breast, but it was not cancerous.
“So I took advantage of that, came to the media, cried for help and said that the lump was cancerous. I played an emotional game. I wanted funds, but I didn’t come out directly to ask for funds,” she confessed.
Blessing CEO explained that the fundraising scheme began after she created the impression that she was considering selling some of her personal belongings, including her car and house, to raise money.
She said members of the public subsequently encouraged her to release her bank details so they could offer financial assistance.
Donations reportedly started pouring in, with different individuals contributing various amounts.
However, she disclosed that the donations dried up after VeryDarkMan publicly challenged her cancer diagnosis and demanded verifiable medical evidence to support her appeal for financial assistance.
“When I saw the video, immediately he made that video, the donation stopped. The donation paused. So I’m like, what do I do? What do I do? That was where the whole orchestration and resolving and all that stuff came,” she said.
The influencer admitted that she was not proud of her actions.
Her confession represents a dramatic reversal of her earlier position during the controversy, which erupted in March after she announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and appealed to the public for financial support for treatment.
In April, during an interview with content creator Egungun of Lagos, she acknowledged receiving N13m in donations but insisted that she had no reason to apologise.
She had also attributed the controversy surrounding her diagnosis to possible miscommunication, maintaining that she was still seeking clarification from her doctors.
The controversy deepened after the Delta State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association disowned a histology report circulated in connection with her cancer claims.
The association disclosed that the report had originally been issued to another patient, Deborah Mbara, and not Blessing CEO.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission subsequently arraigned the influencer on a six-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretence, forgery and other alleged offences relating to the N13m donations.
The commission accused her of using a falsified medical report to solicit money from unsuspecting members of the public. She pleaded not guilty to the charges, which remain before the court.
The cancer-related case is one of three separate fraud cases instituted against her by the EFCC.
In another case, she was arraigned over an alleged N36m fraud involving a property transaction and was granted N10m bail in June.
She is also facing trial over an alleged N69.15m fraud arising from a five-year lease agreement involving a property in Lekki, Lagos, which the anti-graft agency alleged she falsely presented as her own.
The Lagos State Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja granted her N20m bail in July.
During proceedings on October 26, a prosecution witness, Dr Onuoha Okeigwe, told the court that Blessing CEO allegedly misrepresented herself as the owner of the property before collecting the money.
Okeigwe maintained during cross-examination that he relied on her representations, including WhatsApp conversations and other documents, before making the payment.
He further disclosed that he had instituted a separate civil action to recover more than N100m allegedly spent on renovating the property.
The criminal case was adjourned until January 12, 2027, for the prosecution to call additional witnesses.
Blessing CEO pleaded not guilty to the charges in the separate fraud cases.
She was released from custody in late October after spending months at the Kirikiri Correctional Centre. Her detention also coincided with the death of her nine-year-old son, Bryan, in June.