extroverted Nigerian artist Habeeb Okikiola, better known by his stage name Portable, has been hauled before the US Embassy in Nigeria and the office of Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, due to a slew of criminal accusations made by US-based musicians, Prince and Dr. Fortunate Egbuchere.
The US-based singers’ attorney said in the plea, which SaharaReporters saw on Wednesday, that the “Zazuu” crooner was accused of a number of offenses.
Criminal conversion, armed robbery, stealing, criminal assault, assault causing harm, threat to life, criminal defamation, extortion, obtaining by pretense, false imprisonment, misrepresentation, and providing false information to the police are among the crimes, according to the attorney.
According to the petition, which was signed by the claimants’ attorneys, Kayode Mogbojuri Esq., Solicitors to Prince and Dr. Fortunate Egbuchere, both individuals were engaged in business and employment under the E-Square Records.
“Sometime in 2023, the two, who are nationals of Nigeria and America and have bright musical careers in the USA, decided to work together on a song and reached out to Portable through his management.
“After the musical collaboration, Portable assessed the pair N2,500,000 in total, which will cover the cost of creating audio and video recordings.
But when our client finally got in touch with Portable on the day of the music video, he refused to show up. He then stated that he would only agree to participate in the shoot if our clients gave him an extra N1,000,000.
“That our client fulfilled their part of the contract by paying the said N2,500,000 in two tranches,” the petition states in part. The audio recording was completed by Habeeb Okikiola, and it was delivered to our American clients. As of right now, they are quite happy with it.
“That the filming of our clients’ video with Zazu was scheduled for September 2023 at some point.
“Our client contacted Potable’s management, hoping that the video shoot may take place in the United States, after hearing hints that Potable was planning a global musical tour, with America being one of his locations.
Because it was not one of the events his promoters had planned, That Portable rejected to have the footage of him yelling in America.
“After deciding to shoot the video in Nigeria, our clients have been there since December 2023. that our customer moved into a flat at Divine Homes No. 6 Engineer Benson Osika Street on January 21, 2023, in preparation for the film shoot.
After making all the necessary arrangements and spending millions of naira on costumes and other staff, our client scheduled the video shoot for 4:00 pm on February 21, 2023.
“That Portable said he would only make himself available for the video shooting if and only if our clients paid him an additional N1,000,000.” Hours after being ultimately contacted by our client, That Portable refused to show up for the video shoot.
“Our client arrived late at night for the video shoot and paid an additional N1,000,000 to Portable after being pressured by one of the conspirators.”
That following the video shoot, Prince Egbuchere, one of our clients, approached Portable and questioned him about why, in defiance of the previous agreement, he was demanding an additional one million naira.
“That Portable, in his typical way, turned aggressive and attacked our clients.
“That while assaulting our clients, the manager of Portable enlisted the help of some police officers and thugs, resulting in our clients being severely beaten.” That while the police were keeping an eye on him, portable and a few of his goons shut the apartment’s main door and continued to attack our clients.
“That our clients managed to escape through the back door and were whisked away by good Samaritans as they are not familiar with the terrain.
“That the following were looted from our client by Habeeb Okikiola aka Portable Zazu from our clients.
“That Portable has been making videos on social media putting on some of the expensive costumes he looted from our client and has been boasting around that he is untouchable.
“That Habeeb Okikiola has been making false publications against our client in order to alter the narration of facts with the intent of injuring the reputation of our clients.”
