Insider could have leaked my nude photos –Salawa AbeniPopular
singer, Salawa Abeni, became a trending topic online during the week
when she released some semi-nude pictures of herself on Instagram. She
did this after an individual identified as Jason had attempted to
blackmail her with the photos. Jason had sent her the photos on
WhatsApp, threatening to release more to the public if Abeni didn’t pay
him. However, in a bid to thwart his attempts, the musician released the
photos herself.
On what gave her the courage to release the
pictures herself on social media, Abeni told Saturday Beats, “Firstly, I
am not a child. I cannot even recall where that photo was taken. I’m
not sure whether I was even in the hospital or with my partner. It must
have been taken more than 20 years ago. I’ll be 60 next year and I have
spent 46 years on stage, so for anyone to decide to blackmail me in this
critical time when the world is on lockdown, battling the coronavirus
pandemic; that is bad. So, since the person threatened to release the
photo, I decided to ‘help’ him by posting the photo online myself.“Whenever
I travel abroad, I am treated importantly. So, why should someone be
threatening me with blackmail in my own country? He was asking me to
negotiate with him; that after I made the payment, he would make a video
of himself burning the pictures. I put all the conversation we had
online.
“Is nudity that sacred? I gave birth four times and I
exposed my unclothedness to the doctors and nurses at those times. There
was nothing for me to be scared of. I have God and people behind me.
Salawa
noted that she was overwhelmed with the support she had got from
Nigerians. She said, “I don’t even know how to thank Nigerians and
people from across the world. I always knew that people loved Salawa but
I didn’t know it was this much. Since the time I put the picture
online, people have been calling me non-stop. People have been cursing
the person and calling him on my behalf. Many people regard me as a
legend and they felt I shouldn’t be treated that way. On my Instagram
page, I had over 1,000 comments.”
On whether the blackmailer had
contacted her after she put the pictures online, the Waka exponent said,
“If you were the one, would you have contacted me after what I did? He
doesn’t even pick his calls anymore because a lot of people have been
calling him. If you call the number, it is identified as ‘Scammer’ by a
popular caller identifying App.”
On whether she had made a report
to the police, Abeni said, “I have made a complaint to the police and
they are working on it at the moment. I am confident that the Nigeria
Police will arrest him. Even before I made a formal report to the
police, some people had reported the case on my behalf.”
Salawa
also said she wasn’t ruling out the fact that an insider could have
leaked the photos to the blackmailer. She added, “It is said that if the
enemy within does not get one, the one outside cannot get one. We
should only pray that God should save us from those watching us that we
are not aware of. I am a human being and I am entitled to my privacy.”
Lending
some words of advice to other entertainers that could be in similar
situations in the future, the ‘Orin Tuntun’ singer said, “People stood
up for me and that further strengthened me. Anybody who is faced with
such situation should go public about it so people can rally round them
to fight the ‘enemy’. It could happen to a man or woman. Things like
this have happened in the past and it will likely continue to happen.”
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