Skitmaker apologises to AY for alleging he dated May Yul-Edochie

A Nigerian-Sierra Leonean comedian, Agozi Samuel, has apologised to AY comedian for making defamatory statements about him.

Agozi Samuel, on his Facebook page [Agozi Samuel Comedy], alleged that AY engaged in an extra-marital affair with May, the estranged wife of actor Yul Edochie.

He claimed the alleged affair contributed to the couple’s marital crisis.

He further alleged AY was not the biological father of his second daughter.

In response, AY petitioned the Delta State Police Command to arrest and prosecute Agozi Samuel for criminal defamation and cyberstalking, as stated in a petition released by his lawyer, Osoala Iweze.

U-turn

However, Mr Samuel, in an apology video on Facebook, admitted that all the claims made in his video were false and apologised to AY.

He said he created the video for attention, explaining that he had taken it down because he realised it damaged AY’s reputation.

Mr Samuel, who revealed that he was not paid to tarnish AY’s reputation, said he had been posting content on social media in an attempt to earn money.

However, none of the content generated income, so he decided to defame the actor in hopes that his video would gain the desired attention, allowing him to make some money.

He also stated that he had earned money from the video, enabling him to pay his previously unaffordable rent.

He clarified that neither AY nor his relatives had contacted him to create the apology video, but he felt it was the right thing to do.

He further admitted that poverty and hardship led him to tarnish AY’s name.

Apology

He said, “AY, I’m sorry. AY, please forgive me for the video I just did. I uploaded all those videos to my page. I wanted to tell the general public that those videos I did were fake. AY is the biological father of his second daughter. AY has nothing to do with me. I did the video to gain popularity.

“Life in Sierra Leone is hard, and to feed is a problem. There is no work here. That’s why I decided to join content creation. That’s why I came back to Nigeria last month, and I made some videos. Immediately after returning to Sierra Leone, I started posting the content, but I don’t have views and likes. I needed to trend and make money to not return to Nigeria empty-handed. So I decided to do clout and to see that Nigerians are bad. You’ll post good content they will not like. It’s an evil one they will like and comment on.”

AY files petition

On Monday, AY issued a statement on his Facebook page, petitioning the Delta State Police Command regarding what he described as “criminal defamation and cyberstalking” by a Facebook user identified as Agozi Samuel.

The comedian stressed the importance of taking responsibility for one’s actions on social media.

In the petition, filed by his lawyers and dated 24 January, AY was reported to have received numerous messages from friends concerning a video attributed to Agozi Samuel.

AY, in his Facebook statement, expressed his frustration with the barrage of comments from colleagues, bloggers, and clout chasers regarding his person, stating, Enough is enough.’

He revealed his determination not to let many things slide this year, particularly those related to his image, false accusations, and malicious behaviour.

AY remarked that social media has become a realm where subjective feelings often outweigh objective facts, noting that comments can quickly turn negative based on one person’s unfounded statement.

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He emphasised that ignoring or accepting fake apologies circulating online only encourages further acts of malice aimed at harming his career, ambitions, and relationships.

The petition partly read, “On Monday, 22 January 2024, our client was inundated with a barrage of messages from concerned friends, family, and business partners regarding the circulation of four minutes, thirty-two seconds (4:32) video (Annexure,2) which purportedly emanated from the Facebook page of one Mr. Agozi Samuel with the user name, Agozi Commedy (“the page/account”) who is unknown by our client at all material times before the occurrence of this event.

“In the four minutes, thirty-two seconds video titled “AY comedian where is your wife”, posted on Saturday, 20 January 20,24 on the page with a following of over 23,000 followers as seen in Annexure 1 to this letter. The suspect, in a mischievous attempt to generate traffic and views for his page and to gain cheap popularity, knowingly and intentionally made various statements that are not only false and baseless but also capable of causing annoyance, insult, enmity, hatred, public outrage and needless anxiety to our client and his family and exposing our client to hatred and public ridicule.

“The said publication alleges that our client is involved in an extra-marital affair with one, May Edochie, the wife of Yul Edochie, and that our client was responsible for the marital crisis between May and her husband.”