Controversial social media personality, Blessing Okoro, popularly known as Blessing CEO, has made a shocking confession, admitting that she deliberately lied about having breast cancer to raise money from unsuspecting members of the public.
The relationship therapist confessed that she fabricated the cancer story because she was under pressure over a financial dispute involving a man identified as Dr Onuoha Okeigwe and feared public embarrassment.
Blessing made the admission during a face-to-face interview with social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), in a video shared on Wednesday, November 11.
In the interview, her first major public appearance since regaining freedom from detention, she explained how she turned a medical discovery into a fundraising campaign after coming under pressure.
“The pressure was too much. So what did I do? That was where the cancer drama came in. And because of the pressure. I saw this embarrassment coming. I said to myself, what stunt can I pull? What stunts can I pull? Then I pulled out the cancer,” she said.
Blessing admitted that although a medical examination had revealed a lump in her breast, doctors had not diagnosed it as cancerous.
She said she deliberately presented the lump to Nigerians as cancer because she wanted financial assistance but did not want to openly ask people for 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 said.
Explaining how she attracted donations, Blessing said she initially created the impression that she was considering selling her personal belongings, including her car and house.
According to her, people who sympathised with her encouraged her to release her bank details so they could contribute towards her supposed treatment.
She said donations subsequently started coming in from different individuals, eventually reaching N13 million.
In another startling revelation, Blessing disclosed that she used N5 million from the money raised to prepare a bank draft for the man involved in the financial dispute.
She also explained that the donations dried up after VDM publicly challenged her cancer claims and demanded evidence to substantiate her medical condition.
“When I saw the video, immediately he (VeryDarkMan) 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.
She admitted that she was not proud of her actions, acknowledging that she had deliberately manipulated public sympathy to obtain money.
The confession represents a dramatic reversal of her earlier position when the controversy erupted in March 2026, after she announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and appealed to Nigerians for financial assistance.
In April, during an interview with content creator Egungun of Lagos, she admitted receiving N13 million but insisted that she owed nobody an apology.
She had attributed the confusion surrounding her diagnosis to possible miscommunication and maintained that she was still seeking clarification from her doctors.
However, the Delta State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association subsequently disowned a histology report circulated in connection with her cancer claims, saying the document had originally been issued to another patient, Deborah Mbara, and not Blessing CEO.
The controversy eventually attracted the attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which arraigned her on a six-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretence, forgery and other alleged offences involving N13 million raised from members of the public.
The commission alleged that she used a falsified medical report to convince Nigerians to donate towards her supposed cancer treatment.
She pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The cancer-related case is one of three fraud cases instituted against the social media personality by the EFCC.
In a separate case, she was arraigned over an alleged N36 million fraud involving a property transaction. She secured N10 million bail in the matter in June.
She is also facing trial over an alleged N69.15 million fraud involving a five-year lease of a property in Lekki, Lagos, which the EFCC alleged she presented as belonging to her.
The Lagos State Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja granted her N20 million bail in the case in July.
At the continuation of the trial on October 26, a prosecution witness, Dr Onuoha Okeigwe, told the court that Blessing allegedly misrepresented herself as the owner of the property before collecting the money.
The witness maintained during cross-examination that he relied on her representations, including WhatsApp conversations and other documents, before making the payment.
He also told the court that he had instituted a separate civil suit to recover more than N100 million allegedly spent 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 regained her freedom 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.
