By Kayode Badmus
Five years after his untimely death, the car crashed by Oladapo Olaitan Olaonipekun popularly known as Dagrin in the ill-fated accident that led to his death, has been abandoned at the Lagos State University, Ojo Campus.
NET investigations revealed that the car was abandoned due to a misunderstanding between the Lagos State University Students’ Union and show promoters who brought the crashed car to the institution.
A member of the Students’ Union who spoke to NET revealed that the car was brought to the school as a side attraction for the screening of the late rapper’s biopic, Ghetto Dreamz produced by Ope Banwo‘s Stingomania Records in 2011.
The movie was produced to celebrate the life and times of the hip-hop artist.
Speaking to NET, a former Social Director of the Students Union, Ahmed Jimoh, who was in office during the period, said Ope Banwo abandoned the car because he could not pay the money agreed with the students’ body. Upon asking how much the money is, Jimoh gave the figure as N20k, an amount he said was earlier agreed upon before the movie was shown on campus.
‘There was a negotiation between the student union through my office that a sum of N20,000 would be paid to the union’S purse before the film could be shown, they initially gave me a cheque which bounced. After then, I tried communicating with Barr. Banwo’s people but they didn’t give me an audience until my tenure elapsed,’ Jimoh told NET.
‘Since then the car has been abandoned inside the school even as I speak with you,’ he added.
The abandoned car, NET discovered, has been overtaken by weeds, and renders a painful sight of what should be an important relic preserved perhaps in a museum or as a monument in memory of the late star.
Dagrin died following a collision with a stationed vehicle in front of Alakara Police Station in Mushin with his new Nissan Maxima, on April 14, 2010.
The then rave of the moment, known variously as Akogun, CEO or Baeack ‘O’ grin, finally gave up the ghost on April 22, 2010.
His brand of music was largely influenced by the streets and hip-hop delivered through his indigenous Yoruba language and has continued to inspire many others after him. Among rappers who have emerged since the death of Dagrin is YBNL boss, Olamide.
Ope Banwo, who said he lost N20m on the biopic for the late rapper, could not be reached to comment on the story but we will bring you updates on the story.
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I would like you all to know that the story of neglect which involved the crashed car that killed dagrin is false as claimed by the then social director.I was the person that brought the car and the movie to lasu but the student Union lied,The editor can reach me via 08023711360 for the actual reason that led to the neglect of the car.
LOL. Ordinarily I will not condescend to respond to fantasy stories like this but someone close insisted i must respond. It is amazing what crap people will write. The Net NEVER tried to reach me on this fantasy story. Really funny that someone says I cant afford N20K debt? after spending N20million? Does that even make sense to the careless writer of this internet hogwash? Why are some journalists so lazy to check for the truth. I am ALWAYS on social media and no journalist can claim honeslty they CANT REACH Ope Banwo. If you want the truth you know where to find me. LWKD
OFFICIAL RESPONSE TO DAGRIN STORY AND MY DEMAND FOR RETRACTION AND APOLOGY FROM THENET.NG. My attention has been drawn to your publication of May 18th on Dagrin and his accidented car which has since gone viral on the internet.
I am very shocked and embarrassed to read the story from Kayode Badmus of thenet.ng title ‘Five years after, Dagrin’s accident-ridden car abandoned in LASU over 20k debt..’. in which my name was grievously maligned without the writer making any serious effort to even speak with me or contact me despite having all my contacts. It simply shows that many journalists will do anything for a sensational story, the facts of the matter be damned.
Now, many people may wonder why I am even bothering to respond to a story from a lazy journalist who never bothered to check his facts. Truth is I have always belonged to the school of communication thought that you must respond to every false accusation against you, particularly on the internet, where that story becomes permanent once indexed by google, otherwise these allegations will become a fact of history online to be found by anybody who wants to do business with you in the future. As a Social Media Practitioner, I know for a fact that neglected accusations often become fact in the minds and hearts of the readers. Hence my comprehensive response below to Kayode Badmus and thenet.ng publishers.
BOTTOM LINE RESPONSE: I DID NOT TAKE THE DAGRIN'S CAR TO LASU AND NEVER HAD ANY DEALINGS WITH ANY STUDENT UNION OFFICER AND I NEVER WROTE ANY CHEQUES TO LASU.
It is public knowledge that I purchased the accidented Dagrin car for around N500, 000 as part of my efforts to have a more realistic portrayal of the Dagrin story during my production of the bio-pic movie GHETTO DREAMZ, (which by the way is yet to be released into the public domain due to my ongoing N1billion piracy lawsuit against Virgin Atlantic Airways, after doing the theater runs).
However when the movie was completed and it was time to do school exhibitions, one of the young men I was mentoring at the time, one SUNDAY BELLO, approached me and requested to do some campus shows with the movie. He also requested to use the accidented car as part of the movie attraction for students and I gave him permission.
My love and commitment to help young people has been well documented over the years so I did not need to explain why I actually allowed Sunny to take the car on his campus show circuit without ironclad arrangements to ensure he would return it. He is my boy and we are still close even today. I even gave him money to move the car from my house to LASU and around the campuses. I was not involved in any of the details of the deal he struck with the schools or student leaders since he was responsible for all that as the exhibitioner. The campus shows was an opportunity for him to make some money for himself as a faithful student of mine while also generating some income for me as movie owner.
While our agreement was that the young man would split the income from the campus show with my company, the truth of the matter is that we NEVER received any dime from the 4 campus shows or so that he did. When asked about our share of the proceeds, the young man explained that the shows were not profitable for one reason or the other, and since I have known him for a while and trusted him, I accepted his report. I am experienced enough to know it is possible to have a show with a full hall and still make a loss in the process. It has happened to me before and I did not want to be a hypocrite by doubting his experience. I simply moved on with my business and life.
ALLEGED CAR ABANDONMENT – The honest truth is that I have actually forgotten all about the car until someone directed my attention to this story. What I remember is that Sunny Bello was supposed to return the car to our company premises after the show and did not. I also remember asking him about it a few times and each time he gave me some plausible explanations that I sincerely could not remember. My recollection is that after one of his stories for not bringing the car back, I got tired of it all and finally told Sunny Bello to take the car and sell it for whatever he can get since I really did not need the car anymore. That was the last I heard about the car until this story.
ALLEGED BOUNCED CHECK? I am totally chagrined to see in PRINT somebody bold enough to accuse me wrongly of writing a bounced check to LASU. Not only did I NEVER HAVE ANY DEALINGS WITH LASU STUDNT UNION, I NEVER wrote them any cheques, much less bounce any cheque to them. While I can always let a good natured harassment via social media go, since as an active personality on social media myself I know that is the nature of the beast, I CANNOT allow a serious allegation of writing a bounced (a criminal offence) cheque go unchallenged, otherwise it becomes fact. I am a Lawyer and a very visible motivator and trainer of young people. This is a SERIOUS CRIMINAL ALLEGATION OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES and I know for a fact it is a big lie. So I can’t let it go
DEMAND FOR PUBLIC APOLOGY – I still want to believe that the publishers of thenet.ng were sincerely not aware of the real facts of this story and were misled by the reporting of a journalist who did not do his homework. As an incurable optimist, I also believe the publishers of thenet.ng would be willing to do the right thing to make this right and clear my name from this false story in order to preserve the reputation of their publication out of respect for their millions of viewers.
In conviction of the above premise, I am therefore using this medium (my lawyers will follow up with a formal Legal Letter in next 24 hours) to DEMAND A PUBLIC RETRACTION OF THE STORY THAT MENTIONED MY NAME IN CONNECTION WITH ANY BOUNCED CHEQUE. I expect this story to not only be edited and ALL FALSE ACCUSATIONS taken out of it, I also expect and unreserved apology from thenet.ng IN WRITING within the next 72 hours.
Please be informed that should you ignore this request and choose to continue to perpetuate falsehood that continues to malign my name, and bring me into further public ridicule, I will be forced to seek redress in the courts for LIBEL AND MALICIOUS FALSHEOOD against me and my business interests.
I am a big fan of bloggers who are making information easily available to all and sundry and support any effort to move Nigeria forward using the internet, but anything that falsely smear my name and integrity would always be challenged with every energy and resources I have.
I sincerely hope the writer of the story and publishers of thenet.ng will do the right and honorable thing. Publishing false accusations against people demeans the efforts of all of us blogosphere. Having a blog is Not a LICENSE to be careless in your story.
Thank you
Funmilola Badmus You are about to be scammed. Beware !