Actor and filmmaker Tope Adebayo, son of movie veteran Adebayo Salami, has reacted to an allegation of fraud made against him by his business partner.
The partner accused Tope of trying to dupe him of two million naira over a movie project that was not executed.
Addressing the accusation in an Instagram post on Thursday, Tope Adebayo claimed he did not defraud the said partner, adding that the movie project was delayed due to the 2020 COVID 19 pandemic.
Narrating his own side of the story, the Yoruba actor 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 the COVID pandemic we could not shoot the movie as planned, meanwhile chunk of the money has been disbursed to scriptwriters, 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 based on our prior agreement, I had to restrategize 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.
Speaking further, the actor popularly known as Wedee wrote: “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 a refund.
“Although we finally got somebody that is interested in the movie, 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 up 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 blacklisting 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.”
