Iconic Nigerian comedian, Bright Okpocha, popularly known as Baskemouth, has responded to an allegation by his colleague, AY Makun.
In a recent interview with media personality, Chude Jideonwo, which was published earlier this week, AY stated that his relationship with Basketmouth was strained due to N30,000.
AY, during the interview said, “In 2006, this “beef” that is for you to know where it is coming from. He (Basketmouth) unusually would get gigs because when you are the rave-of-the-moment, you can get multiple gigs. On a Saturday, maybe two, or three weddings. What he would do at that point in time was to attend one, then at some point, leave the venue and catch up with the other venue but you would need somebody to stand in for you. That was the opportunity I got from him at the time, which I am very appreciative of till date.
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“Now, something funny happened, one of the gigs per se, I got his endorsement to go stand in for him. Usually, what we get that time is N30,000, and that amount of money was everything to me. It would buy me my pack of noodles, recharge card, fuel for my car and generator. I would also avail myself of the opportunity to pay one or two people to do one or two skits that I can quickly put out. So, I got this job but the people were not too happy to see me at the venue because they were expecting Basketmouth.”
He continued, “Long story short, the guy was later happy with my performance and there was an exchange of numbers and I left. This gig came through one of Basketmouth’s guys. Two weeks running, I had not seen N30,000 and I was starving; as a bachelor, nothing. So, I decided to ask for N30,000 and he (Basketmouth) said the person had not paid. I called the person and said I thought they were happy about the performance; they should give my oga the money so that he can settle me.
“For me, I don’t care if you give Basketmouth N100,000 for the job but I care about my N30,000. It was very funny to hear from them that the full payment had been made long before the event. Basket now sent me a message saying what kind of stupid talk is the person saying that they have given him money. I was now in the middle. So, I forwarded their messages to each other. They now started fighting each other.”
The humour merchant further stated that he tried to reconcile with Basketmouth years later after as they are now both successful, but his estranged friend said, ‘I am a beast, I don’t forgive’.
“One day, Basket was in the club with a glass of drink — now God has blessed the two of us — we are all doing well. So, I walk up to my guy, I said, Bright Okpocha, he is my senior colleague but my junior in real life. So, I said ‘Bright Okpocha, how far my guy,’ we got talking so I said to my friend, ‘God has blessed us; things have moved. This thing that happened in 2006, guy drop am’. My dear colleague looked at me eyeball to eyeball and said, ‘I’m a beast’, I don’t forgive.”
However, reacting to AY’s claims, Basketmouth, during a recent show while cheered on by the crowd about the incident, simply stated, “I don’t want ‘him’ to hear from me.”
While asked about the N30,000 incident at the show, Basketmouth said, “You all want to hear my side of the story. The thing is, to be honest, I would have loved to talk about that, trust me, I would love to talk about it; but the truth is, some people will record it and the thing would leak. Then, people would say that I have responded. Whereas, I no want make that guy ever hear me.” (sic)
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