Ireti Doyle: Why I distanced myself when my daughter was accused of fraud

Ireti Doyle, the actress, has spoken up on the business scandal involving Abimbola Ngozi Onyeulo, her daughter better known as Kachi, 2021.

Abimbola, who ran the eponymous Kachi Beauty Products, was accused of defrauding her customers.

An investigation had exposed how the entrepreneur allegedly carted away over N40 million belonging to her patrons after pushing a hair business scheme that promised to make wealthy those who joined its wholesale distribution.

The business, described as an “empowerment scheme”, had attracted many young women and men both in Nigeria and in the diaspora, most of whom trusted Abimbola due to the status of her mother as a prominent actress.

With purchases put in batches, Abimbola introduced a distributor package. It cost N300,000 to subscribe to the silver category, N500,000 for gold subscribers, N1 million for platinum, and N5 million for diamond subscribers.

But allegations of fraud from over 60 customers prompted her mother to dissociate herself from the venture.

In an interview with Chude Jideonwo, the media entrepreneur, Doyle said she had to distance herself from the scandal because “I didn’t see any decisive action on my daughter’s side to take the heat off me.”

The movie star added that while trying to resolve the disputes and clear her name, Abimbola told her to “mind your business”.

“In her defense, the few times I decided to reach out to her and say, ‘a random person reached out to me and this is what they said, would you like to deal with this what’s going on?’” Doyle said.

“She will give me a detailed explanation with proof and tell me how it is being sorted. It got to a point where I was now like, ‘hello I’m not customer care, I don’t work for this company.’

“You know another statement that has been weaponised is ‘as a mother’. Because of ‘as a mother’, so you too you’re stepping into situations that are really none of your business.

“It got to a point I didn’t like how the situation was being handled even on her part because the customer is always right.

“But I didn’t see any decisive action on my daughter’s side to take the heat off me. There was a time she told me to mind my business. It’s her business, she will handle it and I should go and clear my name anyhow I see fit.”

The actress also confirmed her divorce from Patrick Doyle, the ace actor.

The celebrity couple tied the knot in 2004.