Nollywood actor and director, Tope Adebayo has called out a certain blog for accusing him of defrauding his business partner, without hearing his side of the story.
Tope who is one of the sons of veteran actor, Adebayo Salami aka Oga Bello, became a hot topic on the internet for a couple of days when a man called him out for allegedly defrauding him of over two million naira.
The man alleged that Tope Adebayo’s immediate family, including his father, were aware of the scam, but the latter kept posting him without an update.
Reacting to the unconfirmed reports, Tope Adebayo called out the blog, which reportedly shared the news about him without verification, claiming he did not defraud anyone.
Tope Adebayo disclosed his agreement with his partner in 2019 but could not proceed due to COVID that shook 2020.
The thespian also revealed that his partner had taken most of the money he contributed to sponsor the project, which later became an issue. Via his Instagram page, the Yoruba actor released a disclaimer, while extensively narrating what happened. He wrote:
“It has come to my attention that an unprofound blog on Instagram posted some lies about me Tope Adebayo without verifying.
“Note that I Tope Adebayo did NOT defraud the guy in question and neither have I EVER defrauded anybody.
“The person that accused me of fraud was a business partner. In 2019, we agreed to shoot a movie series together and split the budget 50/50. He sent his own share and I dropped mine as well. Immediately we agreed on the script, I paid prominent artists, the writers and crews we want to use for the shooting to book date with them.
“In 2020, due to COVID pandemic we could not shoot the movie as planned, meanwhile chunk of the money has been disbursed to script writers,some artists and crews. And I kept him informed as it goes by.
“After a while, he borrowed some money from the project which he received. Later on, he came again to borrow from the money (I understood his situation) which I sent it to him. Along the line, we couldn’t shoot base on our prior agreement, I had to restrategized with the money available since he could not return the money he borrowed from the project. We reduced the number of series.
“Had to reach out to the artists and crews to refix a date for the shooting but it was taking too much time because of the challenges.
“This guy decided that he isn’t interested in the movie anymore. I told him that I will have to source for somebody that is interested in the movie because I can’t go back to the artists and crews for refund.
“Although we finally got somebody that is interested in the movie, but she couldn’t do it for now and she postponed it till next year.
“I tried to reach out and inform him but he stopped picking my calls. The mother reached out to me and I told her I will be coming to see her when I am done at my location in Ibadan.
“All of a sudden she sent a text accusing me of black listing her number and also added that I ran back to Lagos (that was the day before yesterday). When I saw the text, I called back immediately but to no avail and I dropped a text that I will come see her but till now am still on set in Ibadan.
“The matter is now being processed.
Thanks
Tope Adebayo Salami”