Five months after denying friendship with his colleague, AY Makun, Nigerian Comedian, Bright Okpocha, popular as Basketmouth, has decided to settle the 17-year beef between them.
In April, AY, in an interview session with media personality, Chude Jidenowo, he disclosed that his long-term beef with Basketmouth, whom he tagged along with to events at the outset of his career, began in 2006.
AY, among other things, claimed that he stood in for Basketmouth at an event but didn’t get his N30,000 payment for the job.
In an apology video posted on his official Instagram page on Monday, Basketmouth finally reached out to AY and sought forgiveness.
He said, “Now, to my guy, AY. I don’t know if my apology is still valid right now, but if it is, please forgive me for whatever I have done or said in the past that affected you in any way,
“I want you to know that I have forgiven you for whatever you did or said knowingly or unknowingly. I just want us to live in peace and harmony.”
Basketmouth also apologised to other colleagues in the industry, whom he may have offended over time.
“Knowingly or unknowingly, I say this to you right now from the bottom of my heart. I am genuinely sorry. Please forgive me,” he pleaded.
However, to the people who accused him of doing one thing or another that affected their career, he did not deny or accept the allegations “because God knows the truth”.
“Regardless, please forgive me. I beg you from the bottom of my heart,” he added.
Meanwhile, in a twist, the comedian confirmed the perception of people who may see his video necessitated by his upcoming show.
However, he noted that regardless of his show, his apology came from a place of genuity to be at peace with his colleagues.
The Beef
On 29th March, AY, while narrating his beef with Basketmouth, said his colleague usually would get multiple gigs on weekends and outsourced some of them to him.
According to him, Basketmouth would attend one, then at a point, leave the venue and catch up in the other medium, and then he would need someone else to stand in for him.
“That was the opportunity I got from him, which I am very appreciative of to date,” AY said, noting that the profits from the gigs helped him in those days.
“Now, something funny happened. In one of the gigs, I got his endorsement to go stand in. Usually, we get at that time N30,000, and that N30,000 was everything to me.
“The N30,000 would buy me my pack of Indomie, recharge cards, fuel for my ‘I better pass my neighbour’ generator and then the opportunity to pay just one or two people to join me to do one or two skits that I can just quickly put out,” he narrated.
However, after he stood in for Basketmouth during this event, AY said he was not paid and had to reach out to Basketmouth, who also told him that the organisers had yet to be paid.
AY said he later contacted the organisers and was shocked that the client paid before the event.
Among other things, AY also accused Basketmouth of delisting him from his wedding invitation, turning down shows where he is billed to perform and rebuffing attempts at peace.
Basketmouth’s reaction
On 12th April, the comedian, while reacting to AY’s allegations, said there was never a time when he was friends with AY.
“We have never been friends. I’ve never visited his house. I’ve never personally invited him to my house. I never call one day say, oh boy, where you dey make we hang out. What’s going on? Nothing like that don ever happens.”
Basketmouth noted no picture of him and AY on social media, proving they were not friends.
He disclosed that Alibaba once called him to give AY an opportunity, so he put him on ‘Laughs and Jams’ back then.
Although he said he considered doing projects with AY, considering what he heard about AY, he chose not to.
Destalker’s allegations
In September, Nigerian Comedian Oghenekowhoyan Desmond, popularly known as Destalker, also revealed how he unknowingly fell out with his colleague, Basketmouth.
In a recent interview session on the Honeybunch podcast, Destalker said he got a call to appear on Basketmouth’s Flatmate show, but he declined twice.
The comedian said his reasons for declining were based on the caller’s miscommunication, and he never knew it was Basketmouth’s show.
Destalker said three weeks later, he met a colleague at a lounge who criticised him for declining to feature on Basketmouth’s program out of arrogance.
He said, “Till today, when I go out and see my colleagues, I’ll exchange pleasantries with everyone, but Basketmouth always acts like he doesn’t see when I try to relate with him.”
Destalker noted that he tried three times to reach out to Basketmouth but always ignored him, so he decided to let it go.
He also alleged that Basketmouth and other senior colleagues blacklisted him in the industry.
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