The voice of the people has weighed down Popular Nollywood Actor, Aremu Afolayan as he apologized to Nigerians following backlash over comments he made at a recent EKO57 campaign gathering, a political support group mobilising for President Bola Tinubu’s second-term bid.
Afolayan in response, issued a public apology in a video posted on his Instagram page on Thursday, (19/3/26), pleading that his comments had been misunderstood.
As a show of real remorse amid the backlash, the Nolywood Actor announced his withdrawal from partisan political activities, vowing never to support any candidate in future elections.
The Actor had on Sunday, in an event that brought together several Nollywood figures, including Yomi Fash-Lanso, Remi Surutu and Adams Kehinde, among others, to rally support for President Tinubu’s re-election, appeared to have dismissed concerns about the rising cost of living, with the brother Kunle also downplaying the current insecurity in the country.
Afolayan was quoted as saying that, he was not affected by the economic hardship facing many Nigerians, while his brother, Kunle Afolayan was also accused of describing reports of insurgency as exaggerated.
The remarks, according findings, triggered widespread criticism on social media, with many Nigerians accusing the actor of being insensitive and alleging that he had been paid to make the statements.
Following the reactions, Aremy Afolayan said:
“I’m sorry. The curse has been too much, and I didn’t offend anyone but just went wrong. I picked what I shouldn’t have picked,” he said.
“My heart is heavy because I’ve hurt a lot of Nigerians. The second narration concerns insecurity, and it’s obvious that insecurity is in town and everywhere in Nigeria, and the government isn’t doing anything about it.”
“What I was trying to say in the video was that if you saw anybody shouting ‘they’re coming from this side’ and someone on the
news was saying ‘don’t worry, nothing is happening, be calm, don’t answer that person’ because they were reading a script, that was all I was trying to say,”
“My best friend’s mother was kidnapped… How could I say there’s no insecurity? We didn’t bring it out because we had to pay millions of people to get her released,” he explained.
