A popular Nigerian blogger, Linda Ikeji has explained real reason why her blogsite was shut down.
The site has since been restored.
According to her, an old cyber friend’s vendetta after he felt ignored by Linda.
In the gmail chat conversations with the said AyeDee, he revealed “I really thought success had gone to your head”.
Linda explains in this blog post written by 1am, Friday October 10, 2014 her conversation with AyeDee and the real reason for the shut down.
She wrote, ‘What you are about to read is quite long…and chilling! I wasn’t going to share this info in public but after I showed it to some family members and a few friends who came to the house this morning, everyone agreed that I need to share this, that you all need to read this. You see, what happened with my blog wasn’t about beef.
“It wasn’t because I showed off my new SUV. It wasn’t about plagiarism, or copyright infringement. It was something deeper, very personal and maybe even more dangerous. Some would call it obsession.
“To understand this I am going to start from the beginning but before that I want to talk about plagiarism. My understanding of plagiarism is when you take someone’s work and republish it verbatim as your own work. I don’t do that. But if I have ever done that in the past then I apologize. It was an oversight. I do get a lot of original content, way more than any other blogger in this country.
“Some of the biggest news stories in this country in recent times was broken by LIB. From Goldie’s death (God rest her soul) Aluu4, ABSU rape, P-Square saga, Solomon Akiyesi and plenty more. And when I take news from other sources, I always credit them. When I don’t give credit is when the news is everywhere so I write it in my own words and make it mine. I don’t believe that is a crime. I admit that I have used photos without giving credit. I apologize. That will never happen again. You learn every day. And I have learnt from this.
“Now about Mr Aye Dee. Let me start from the very beginning so you guys understand what really happened. Like I said earlier, this was not about copyright or plagiarism. It was personal. Very personal. In 2009 or 2010…(not sure) a guy named Alex who used to run 1976AD blog contacted me. He said he was impressed with my work and wanted to encourage me to never relent. Alex Info 1976AD (how I knew him back then) and I became very good friends online. In fact he was my confidant. Every time I had questions or challenges, I would reach out to him.
“By 2011, Alex 1976AD and I became quite close…online. We even exchanged numbers and spoke a few times. He always reminded me how proud of me he was. He told me I would one day become a phenomenon. I wasn’t number one at the time but he told me that I would one day be the biggest news site in Nigeria…that he believed in me that much. He was my friend, my supporter; he sent me news to post on my blog. He wanted me to succeed. He told me things to do to get more readers. He knew a lot about the internet and how it works so I always went to him for advice. He was my anchor.