Popular Nigerian Afrobeat artiste, Ikuforiji Olaitan Abdulrahman, better known professionally as Oxlade, has broken the silence over the reason he restricted the account of late Nigerian rapper Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Aloba, a.k.a Mohbad on Instagram.
Following Mohbad’s death on September 12, celebrities, fans, and Nigerians have continued paying tribute to the ‘peace’ hitmaker.
While joining other Nigerians to pay their last respects to Mohbad, Oxlade shared a screenshot of his Instagram conversation with him.
However, a close look at the chat showed that Mohbad’s account was placed on restriction, a development that did not sit well with some Nigerians who took to different social media platforms to call him out over the act.
Although the ‘Kulosa’ crooner deleted the screenshot, he has continued to receive heavy backlash and criticism from Nigerians.
Addressing the development on his X (formerly Twitter) account late Friday, Oxlade revealed that the motive for restricting Mohbad’s account was not to berate or ignore him, but to enable him to properly reply to his chat.
According to him, his social media accounts are being handled by his record label, and restricting an account indicates to his record label that messages from such accounts are important.
He also lamented receiving death threats over the development but maintained that he didn’t take those threats personally.
In the lengthy statement, he wrote, “Tape drop, I no talk. Lawsuit matter, I no talk. Lost endorsements. I still did not send it. You drag me for TikTok. Call me oxtail. Because the doctor put me on vocal rest for nodules, you people still neva cared, but I still never send.
“On This matter, I won’t be quiet. How do you think people like me manage the DMs? We have teams. I restrict certain accounts to only me/my phone so only I can reply. I’m not clearing my name. I am giving you facts.
“I’ve lost a friend, and I can’t grieve properly because elders and blogs want to use me for clickbait. Fighting against bullying, but you are bullying me. Make it make sense. I’m not speaking on this again, please. Let’s focus on getting justice. Make una use una time to do better things and leave other people to live.
“Note: I only restrict accounts I have a personal relationship with because my label runs my account in order not to miss important bookings and business conversations. So the restricted account is a way of pointing out to my label that the messages from these accounts are private and come from my close friends.
“I have been getting death threats ever since the event was unveiled but I don’t take anything personal because everything happens for a reason. You can silence me with a scandal but you can never dim my light. Imole season for a reason. Love; Gaza.”