Abu Salami, the businessman, who recently called out Nigerian singer, Davido, for failing to fulfill his ₦218 million contract obligation, has further disclosed that he paid a sum of ₦5 million to Larry Gaga, who’s also a recording artiste, to meet with the Unavailable lyricist.
In an exclusive interview he had with AfroWorldNews, the Abu Salami Media founder, stated that he agreed to pay Larry Gaga the ₦5 million he requested, as he couldn’t secure an agreement with Davido’s sister, whom he earlier met.
”I won a contract of $500,000 USD for my company. It was for a football show, which I have been doing for six years. When I was negotiating with the company that came with the funds, part of the promises I made was that I would get Davido on board as our ambassador. They told me I would have to negotiate with Davido myself, which I went ahead to do.
”I contacted his friends, and people close to him to get his attention. I eventually got to his sister, whom I negotiated with at the time. What she wanted then was ₦200 million naira upfront payment, and 35% of my company because they believed I would be making quite a lot of money, which was true. But I didn’t have the requested ₦200 million,” Salami told this publication.
”The company that gave me the contract was only going to make part payment first to me, and it was ₦167 million.
”So, I eventually met Larry Gaga, who’s a renowned person in the industry as well. Larry Gaga charged me ₦5 million to take me to Davido, which I agreed to. He took me to Davido’s place, and the day we met, we spoke and had an agreement. We shook hands, took a picture together as well, and he asked for a deposit to make. I told him yes, and he then asked me to go and make the deposit in the bank with one of his aides by the name, Lati. 40 minutes after meeting Davido, I transferred ₦100 million to him.
”Two days later, I sent the contract to Davido to sign, and he said he was going to share it with his lawyers. So, I waited. I reached out to him a week later to ask about the contract, and he said his lawyers were at it. He further stated that he wasn’t going to sign the contract until the money agreed was fully paid. The money to balance him was N76 million. Then we agreed that I would be paying him N15 million on a monthly basis. I was keeping up with the payment for the first two months.
”The third month I asked for his availability to shoot a commercial for the show. But on the first day of the shoot, Davido didn’t turn up even after I had rented N8 million worth of equipment. He said he had a flight to catch, so I lost my ₦8 million. I didn’t complain, I kept on working with him. When he got back, I reached out and said we were going to set up for the shoot again, and he said fine. David said he couldn’t make it to the stadium, and I lost ₦9 million that day. So I called Larry Gaga I couldn’t continue to live like that. He promised to talk to him.
”I now decided to shoot bigger stuff this time around, with presenters and big generators at the stadium. Davido called me while I was there that he couldn’t make it to the stadium and that I had to come to his house and shoot it in his garden. I protested against it, and he said it’s either I do that, or I forget about it, as he was travelling that night. We took all the equipment and ran there, Obviously, they were too big for a garden, we couldn’t use them. We lost the money, but we managed to shoot that day.
”After editing it, I called Davido that he needed to come and do sound, and he said, I needed to make another payment. I then told him that I had given him N130 million already, and I couldn’t give him more until we had some content to show the sponsors. He now said if I don’t have any money to give him he wasn’t going to do anything. I begged him for a month and a half to get the sound from Davido.
”I paid another ₦15 million and told Davido we wanted to do a press conference. He then said he didn’t know that was part of the package, and I needed to pay another N30 million. To cut a long story short, a day before the press conference, his son died, which stopped the project for six months. When he came back and started doing things, I reached out to him again, and he asked for money to kick off. So, I paid him another ₦15 million.
”We eventually agreed on another day for the press conference, and I have been in his house for three days, making sure he will be available. A day before the press conference, Davido sent me a message that he would not be available because he wanted to take his wife to dinner. At that point, I lost my mind. I went and did the press conference myself, and when I got back, I went to see him, and he was angry that I went ahead, trashing the N10 million I spent on it.”
Salami further revealed that Davido threatened him, and said he would show him that he’s bigger than him in the industry.
When asked about Larry Gaga’s role in ensuring that Davido fulfilled his obligation of their agreement, Salami stated, ”I can’t lie, he tried his best to get Davido to do the right thing. He even spoke with him in my presence, but the person I was dealing with was just who he is.”
Afro World News
