Nigerian singer and songwriter Oxlade has been fined ₦5million after a long battle in court over his leaked sex tape case.
An Ikeja High Court in Lagos State awarded the money, equivalent to $10,856.82, to the plaintiff only identified as Blessing – the woman who was captured in the video with the singer.
In a judgment delivered on January 24, 2023, Justice Olalekan Oresanya described the musician recording their sexual activity as “despicable, horrendous, classless and distasteful.”
This comes after Blessing, in March 2022, filed a suit before the Court seeking ₦20million damages after the sex tape leaked online.
She also demanded a declaration that the singer’s act of recording his explicit sexual acts without her knowledge amounted to flagrant contravention of enabling laws, violation of her fundamental rights to dignity, privacy and freedom from discrimination guaranteed under Sections 34 and 37 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended); and Articles 5 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Ratification and Enforcement), Act, CAP A9, LFN, 2004.
Meanwhile, the judge ordered Oxlade to pay the sum of ₦5million damages to Blessing in two instalments of ₦3 million and ₦2 million, respectively.
Background
Oxlade went viral on social media on February 9, 2022, after a video purporting to be the Afrobeats singer, known in real life as Ikuforiji Olaitan Abdulrahman, supposedly having sex with a lady broke the internet.
The alleged tape, which was reportedly leaked on Snapchat, made its way onto the micro-blogging site shortly after it went viral.
A week after the tape was released, Oxlade apologised to the young lady seen with him in the video. He stated that the young woman did not deserve this type of exposure she’s been forced to deal with.
But reacting to Oxlade’s statement, the woman demanded compensation from the musician.
In leaked conversations between her and the rising act, the lady demanded about $20,000 for the damages the tape has brought her.
According to her, she was, among other things, disowned by her family, and her close associates, including Oxlade, whom she accused of ignoring her since the clip surfaced.
Blaming Oxlade for putting her in such a position, she wrote to him on Snapchat, “you are turning me into a monster. I am happy to turn; you are wicked; my fam disowned me.”
Later in a WhatsApp chat, she expressed her displeasure about being ignored, but Oxlade, in turn, said he was not having an easy time either.
However, the disgruntled woman told the musician, following the disruption the leaked tape had brought into her life, she would like to travel and begin life anew.
Although Oxlade offered to pay for her flight to Ghana and give her monthly upkeeps, she demanded more.
“I want $20k. My life is more or less ruined. I need to move to a new city and country at this point. Rent a place. If we are being honest, I deserve more than that,” she wrote.
She subsequently sued the singer.
In addition, the judgment prohibits Blessing from beginning any additional legal procedure or any process relating to the facts and matters giving rise to the litigation, as well as from instituting or addressing the concerns raised in the claim on any platform or before any third person.
