‘Masquerades threaten to kill me in 7 days over new movie’ — Shebaby cries out

Oluwaseyi Ariyo, Nigerian actress better known as Shebaby, has alleged death threats from some masquerade worshippers over a scene in ‘Asiri Pepe’, her forthcoming movie.

In a video shared on her Instagram page, the actress explained that the said scene involved a masquerade sleeping with a woman.

According to Shebaby, someone had secretly recorded the scene while she was shooting the film and thereafter shared it on social media platforms.

The actress said the video had caught the attention of some masquerade worshippers who accused her of attempting to denigrate the cultures and traditions of the Yoruba people.

She alleged that they had already threatened that she would die in the next seven days.

She explained that efforts to make them understand that the movie is not aimed at relegating culture and traditions as alleged have so far proved abortive.

Shebaby, who shared a photo of the threat containing her picture, called on Nigerians to intervene in the matter.

“Please Nigerians, come to my aid. I did a movie recently titled ‘Asiri Pepe’ and we used a masquerade. The masquerade was made to sleep with the character in the said movie. While we were filming the scene, someone secretly recorded it on his/her phone and shared it on the social media,” she said.

“Masquerade worshippers saw the clip and they have started threatening me since last week. They said I would die in the next seven days. Please help me to beg them, I have sent several people to plead on my behalf but they didn’t honour that.

“I was accused of denigrating the culture and traditions of the people. The traditionalists alleged that I planned to soil the Yoruba traditions In the mud. I’d never do that.”

In a post accompanying the video, the actress said the project is aimed at enlightening “people on religious realities beyond the altar and in fact, the impact of looking down on the African religion.”

“I would never look down on our heritage and rich culture. The movie ‘Asiri Pepe’ was produced to enlighten people on religious realities beyond the altar and in fact, the impact of looking down on the African religion,” she added.

“When ‘Asiri Pepe’ finally hits the screen you’d see for yourself that it is not a movie that was produced to disregard the African Heritage.”