The national students union in Ijare has denied
allegations that leading Nigerian gospel musician Yinka
Ayefele was assaulted recently in Ondo.
This comes on the heels of widespread reports that
Ayefele was attacked by thugs popularly known as ‘area
boys’ at a Saturday, October 3 performance in Ijare, a
suburb of Akure in Ondo state.
The Ekiti born singer had been hired to perform at the
burial of Madam Ebunoluwa Lydia Odumakinde but thugs
showed up at the scene demanding a cut off what he
charged as performance fee.
Sources say the singer charged N3million to perform at
the burial ceremony.
According to unconfirmed sources, the incident led to 15
people allegedly being injured as a result of the face off.
Naij.com had earlier reached out to the singer’s camp for
a clearer version of how things played out.
David Ajiboye, Ayefele’s manager, who spoke to Naij.com
in an exclusive chat confirmed the attack saying: “Area
boys came to Ayefele while performing on stage to ask for
money and he promised to give them after his
performance, immediately he got off stage Ayefele gave
them N100,000.”
Apparently the thugs went away and showed up in another
group several times as they made monetary demands
which irked the singer and his team who refused to part
with anymore cash.
This prompted an attack on a 2015 Ford Explorer in which
the singer was conveyed as well as the team’s equipment
truck.
Although it was initially stated that none of the band
members was injured several other speculations implied
otherwise.
However, in a recent statement on Thursday, October 22
the Ijare national students union rejected all claims that
Ayefele and his band were assaulted in Ijare.
Mr. Adu Olalekan, the union’s president, revealed via his
statement that all talks that the singer was harassed by
thugs from the community
Olalekan went ahead to persuade Nigerians to ignore
reports that Ayefele was assaulted by thugs as a lot of
other prominent musicians had been to the town a lot of
times to perform without any issue of this sort.
Yinka Ayefele used to work in the media sector as a
broadcaster before he ventured into music.
He started his sojourn in music after a 1997 car crash in
which he suffered spinal cord injuries. During the period in
which he was recuperating, the ‘gospel tungba’ star began
composing songs which led to a 1998 album – Bitter
Experience.