Smooth Productions, the producers of the popular Nigerian music awards known as The Headies, have condemned controversial artiste Portable for endangering the lives of fellow nominees.
According to the nomination list released by the Headies on Tuesday, the fast-rising artiste is up for Best Street-Hop Artiste and Rookie of the Year.
The singer, born Habeeb Okikiola, took to Instagram on Wednesday to issue death threats to other artists nominated in the categories in which he was nominated.
“Those are my awards, anybody else who wins I will ask for them to be killed. I will ask them to kill the person. If the organisers give my award to someone else, they will die,” he said in Yoruba. “No go give my award to another person, he go die o”
Smooth Productions reported the disturbing video to the police, according to a statement posted on Headies' official Instagram account on Friday. The singer was also warned to retract his statement and apologize in writing to his coworkers.
"The Headies condemns such act and is vehemently opposed to the utterance of any threats or actions that violate our laws," the statement said in part. We have informed the Nigerian Police Force of Okikiola's actions, as well as the other award nominees.
Also, demand that the immediate retraction of the video from Mr. Okikiola’s social media platforms, as well as a written apology to the nominees of both categories and to the Headies, must be made.
Should Mr. Okikiola fail to meet our demands, we would not only disqualify him from participating in the Headies but also enforce the instrumentalities of the law to the fullest.”
The organizers also urged the public to disregard the video and refrain from sharing it on social media platforms.
