Entertainment
Ruggedman debunks alleged police arrest, says its ‘fake news’
Veteran Nigerian rapper Michael Ugochukwu Stephens, popularly known in music circles as Ruggedman, has denied reports making the rounds that he has been arrested.
Online rumors had spread that the artist, along with fellow musicians Zaki Azzay, Sunny Neji, Boniface Itodo, and Fega Michaels, had been arrested for financial malfeasance.
In a video posted to his Instagram page, Ruggedman noted that he is “free and unbothered” and bemoaned the media’s failure to confirm information before broadcasting.
READ ALSO: Trump threatens Apple with 25% tariff on iPhones made outside U.S.
Additionally, he highlighted that the reports of his detention are wholly untrue and part of a smear campaign purportedly carried out by Pretty Okafor, the former president of the Performing Musicians Employers’ Association of Nigeria (P-Man), who is currently suspended.
“There was a petition written against myself, Sunny Neji, Zaki Azzay, Boniface Itodo, and a couple of others. It’s not about us stealing money. It’s about money allegedly missing in the P-Man office—which has not been proven,” Ruggedman stated.
According to him, the petition was filed soon after Pretty Okafor was suspended by P-Man’s National Working Committee (NWC), which consists of him and the other artists listed, for unlawfully opposing the union.
“So you see how this is going? The same people who suspended him are the same people he wrote a petition against,” he said.
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
SPECIAL REPORT: Broken Promises: Neglected Kwara PHCs costing lives
By Abdulganiyu Abdulrahman Akanbi The road leading to Tswako, a rural community in Lafiaji, the headquarters of Edu Local Government...
SPECIAL REPORT: No staff, no drugs, no ambulance: Inside Abuja’s failing rural health centres
On a sunny afternoon in the month of March, my bike man and I were travelling to Chorin Boso, a...
SPECIAL REPORT: In Sokoto, classrooms overtaken by goats, reptiles, as insecurity, lack of teachers, govt inaction push children out of school
SHEHU MUHAMMAD SHEHU reports on how insecurity, government inaction and lack of qualified teachers has significantly forced up the number...
INVESTIGATION: Abia residents in pains, as contractor abandons erosion control project after collecting N185m
Fresh from fashion school in 2022, Onuka Kalu planned to convert one of his father’s two shops, where he formerly...
Trump halts $50m Gaza aid, cites ‘condoms in Gaza’ claim
In a sweeping move to reassess U.S. foreign aid spending, President Donald Trump has frozen a $50 million assistance package...