Nollywood actress Iyabo Ojo has filed a countersuit against popular singer Azeez Fashola, aka Naira Marley, seeking one billion naira.
It should be noted that the counsel for the Marlian Record label boss recently issued a pre-action notice demanding that the actress pay ₦500 million in damages for allegedly linking the singer to the death of one of his former signees, Mohbad.
Since his passing on September 12, 2023, the young singer’s death has sparked controversies, investigations, and outrage.
In response to the lawsuit, Ojo insisted Marley’s lawyer made the claims public and available to the media “but failed to serve them on me.”
Marley’s failure to deliver the letter to her, she claimed, was a “calculated attempt to smear my hard-earned reputation.”Ojo is also demanding from the Am I A Yahoo Boy singer a public apology. On her verified Instagram account, she posted the letter issued by her lawyers.
It read, “Foremost, our client would ordinarily have dismissed your letter of 12th day of December 2023 for being outrightly inconsequential and of no relevance, premised on your failure to transmit the correspondence either by hand or post till this very day.
“Our client views your conduct (failure to first serve a copy of the letter of 12 December 2023 before same was released) as a calculated attempt to disparage her well-earned reputation, tarnish her jealously parded vocal capital and advocacy, and ultimately cause her psychological trauma not limited to incitement of the members of the public to (cyber) bully and lose the goodwill of her clients thereby resulted in loss of patronage of her craft and income from sales of goods and services.
The statement further read, “Our client shall be claiming the sum of One Billion Naira (N1, 000, 000, 000.00) deliberately misleading the public a letter was served on her with the intent of causing grievous harm which has indeed led to the grievous loss of income and lower her standards amongst right-thinking individuals, Nigerian and International associates, corporate institutions and reputable companies our client works for as ambassadors and/or Counter-Claim against your client for One Billion Naira (N1, 000, 000, 000.00) for first bringing to the media and/or public, a letter addressed to her but deliberately not delivered/served.” (Channels)