The former mistress of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, Autumn Spikes, has opened up on how he ‘insulted’ her by offering her a ‘paltry’ sum of $15,000 for her to keep quiet over their affair that became public after she shared a viral video clip showing her seated beside Dangote who was lying down on the same couch, with part of his buttocks exposed.
Dangote had reportedly ended the over 10 years old affair and had gone ahead to ask Spikes to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) which he said she breached by leaking the video which exposed the businessman and brought undue negative publicity to him.
The African-American was reacting to a lawsuit filed against her by Dangote at a Miami-Dade County Court in Florida, United States of America, where he demanded an “excess of $30,000 from her as damages for libel, cyber stalking, defamation of character and breach of agreement to keep their relationship private and off the social media.”
He also stated in the lawsuit that Spikes demanded the sum of $5 million in exchange for the Non-Disclosure Agreement to keep her mouth shut.
In the lawsuit, Dangote used the pseudonym John Doe, aka AD, apparently an acronym for his names, Aliko Dangote, in “order to avoid unnecessary publicity designed to impair his right to privacy and to coerce his payment of money he does not owe Autumn Spikes,” according to his lawyer.
Part of the court document filed on January 22, titled ‘Complaint petition for declaratory judgment complaint for (about) extortion petition for injunctive relief,’ stated that Dangote’s “business acumen has made him a target for coercion by the defendant.”
It added that Spikes demanded “meritless claims of $5 million” in the nature of “palimony to which she is not legally entitled.”
“Palimony is an amount of money a law court orders someone to pay regularly to a former partner whom they were living with but were not married to.
“Autumn Spikes has made a demand that the plaintiff pays her five million dollars ($5,000,000.00) as shown in Exhibit 1.”
However, in a post on her Instagram page with the handle @allarounda1 on Wednesday, Spikes said Dangote offered her a ‘paltry’ $15,000 and $2,500 monthly as well as putting pressure on her to sign the first NDA to ‘hush her.’
“I was insultingly offered $15,000 and $2,500 a month to sign an NDA but I declined,” Spikes stated in the post.
“I gained legal counsel in which we countered his offer. Mind you, his first initial offer wasn’t disclosed in the terms of his proposed NDA.
“Therefore I was pressured and influenced to sign which was already a violation of his own NDA.”
Spikes who shared parts of the court documents filed by Dangote on the Instagram page, denied threatening the billionaire businessman with blackmails on the social media or through media talk shows as claimed by his lawyers in the lawsuit.
She maintained that she had kept her affair with Dangote private and expressed surprise that she could be sued for extortion by the wealthy businessman.
“He denied knowing me and our relationship to his lawyers and we’re asked for proof of our affair… now I’m being sued for extortion?
“This is such a manly egotistical move. I’ve kept it private but you made it public with the lawsuit.
“All these claims of interviews and talk show threats will have to be proved in court so… & I haven’t spoken to anyone regarding our relationship.
“I have not been served. Since this is a public record, let’s discuss it. What are your thoughts? Dangote’s suit will be dismissed.”
