"I won't lie to you; I feel very bad for him. I dey pity am. To be honest, if I see that guy, I will hug him. He needs a hug. I need to show him love. You know, it is the guilty one that cries wolf the most".
Famous Nigerian comedian, Bright Okpocha, popularly called Basketmouth, has reacted to claims by his industry colleague, Ayo Makun, aka AY, that they have avoided each other for 17 years.
AY, in a recent session with media personality Chude, said his long-term beef with Basketmouth, whom he tagged along with to events at the outset of his career, began in 2006.
AY, among other things, claimed that he stood in for Basketmouth at an event but didn't get paid. He later discovered that the client had made the payment before the event.
However, in the latest episode of 'The Honest Bunch' podcast aired on Easter Monday, Basketmouth cleared the issue.
Hosted by OAP, Nedu, Husband Material, Deity Cole, and Naomi, the episode was themed 'Friendship and Loyalty.
When asked if AY was his friend, Basketmouth gave an emphatic No.
Speaking primarily in pidgin, the humour merchant noted that the narrative that AY tried to quash the beef between them was false.
"It's 2023, and my kids are grown; my son will be 14 next month. It's just so sad to say na this kind of gist is still dey social media in 2023 after the election. After all these things, Ukraine dey fight the war, we dey talk of thirty thousand," he said.
The comedian, who recently divorced his wife, said he doesn't want to talk about it but noted that he needed to set the record straight.
The beef
In his interview, AY recalled how in 2006, Basketmouth usually would get multiple gigs on weekends and outsourced some of them to him.
According to him, what Basketmouth used to do then was to attend one, then at a point, leave the venue and catch up in the other medium, and then you will need someone else to stand in for you.
"That was the opportunity I got from him, which I am very appreciative of to date," he said, noting that the profits from the gigs helped him in those days.
"Now, Something funny happened. In one of the gigs, I got his endorsement to go stand in. Usually, we get at that time N30,000, and that N30,000 was everything to me.
"The N30,000 would buy me my pack of Indomie, recharge cards, fuel for my 'I better pass my neighbour' generator and then the opportunity to pay just one or two people to join me to do one or two skits that I can just quickly put out," he said.
However, during this event, after he stood in for Basketmouth, he was not paid and had to reach out to Basketmouth, who also told him that the organisers had not been paid.
AY said he contacted the organisers and was shocked that the client paid before the event.
AY said it was when he shared a picture of his chats between himself and the man who booked the gig that the feud ensued.
Among other things, AY also accused his fellow comedian of delisting him from his wedding invitation, turning down shows where he is billed to perform and rebuffing attempts at peace.
No friend, no foe
Speaking on 'The Honest Bunch' podcast, Basketmouth described AY's claims as laughable, saying there was never a time when he was friends with AY.
"We have never been friends. I've never visited his house. I've never personally invited him to my house. I never call one day say, oh boy, where you dey makes we hang out. What's going on? Nothing like that don ever happen.
"If you look around social media, you will never find a picture of him and me. It's not there. So we were never friends," he said.
He noted that veteran comedian Alibaba called him once to give AY an opportunity, so he put him on 'Laughs and Jams' back then.
Although he said he considered doing projects with AY, he heard some things about the Warri comedian that made him distance himself from him.
"During that period, I heard things I was not supposed to hear or know. So all this while when e dey talk, no be wetin make me give am space be that o. It's something else. That incident sef, I don forget, but I dey use that one as distraction and smokescreen," he said.
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He also said that about 90 per cent of AY's claims were lies hence his initial decision not to honour him with a response.
According to Basketmouth, he only did one job with AY, and when he noticed he had not been paid, he affected the payment immediately.
"He omitted that information. I know the move. The guy dey promote the show. He needs to sell tickets. At my wedding, I did not invite him. I no even know say dem invite im wife. Na my friends I invite for my wedding," he added.
He further reiterated that he was not friends with AY, and neither was he his enemy.
I won't lie to you, I feel very bad for him. I dey pity am. To be honest, if I see that guy, I will hug him. He needs a hug. I need to show him love. You know, it is the guilty that cries wolf the most," he stated.
