Comedian and actor Ijoba Lande (Ganiyu Morufu) is once again in the spotlight—this time amid claims that he’s the target of a ₦5 million blackmail extortion involving a deepfake AI video falsely depicting him in bed with a married woman, who he says is a senator’s wife.
In a series of Instagram posts, the actor stressed how the fabricated video was being circulated among his network of “benefactors and contacts,” severely damaging his reputation and livelihood.
I’m calling on the Nigerian government to act fast on the use of AI to create videos. If not regulated, it will cause a lot of damage in this country. Someone sent me a video and threatened me. In the video, I was naked and in bed with a married woman.
He lamented about the emotional turmoil of the blackmail and emphasised that the person in the video was not him.
“I’m not the one in that video, but the person is threatening me and demanding N5 million. If you are the one behind it, just delete it. I am not the person in it,” said the actor.
They are now sending the video to my benefactors, and some of them don’t seem to believe it isn’t me. I don’t even understand how the video was made.
I found out that the woman in the video is married to a senator, and several people have been sending it to me. Please, if you receive the video, delete it immediately and don’t forward it to me. The person in the video isn’t me. I’m not a kid, I would know if I was intimate with someone. And to the person who created that video, I hand you over to God.
This comes months after his highly publicised infidelity scandal involving Lande’s marriage. He had previously accused his estranged wife, Darasimi, of unfaithfulness with multiple industry figures. Darasimi later publicly apologised and begged for forgiveness, calling her actions a grave mistake.
Although actor Baba Tee initially denied involvement, he later admitted to a brief encounter during a drinking game.
