Mercy Aigbe: Why I fought with shoe vendor Larrit

Mercy Aigbe, the Nollywood actress, has opened up on the altercation between her and Lara Olokotun, the shoe vendor better known as Larrit.

Aigbe and Larrit were recently engaged in a heated confrontation at a star-studded party in Lagos. The altercation, however, escalated after Larrit threw a bottle at Aigbe.

In a lengthy note on Instastory, Aigbe alleged that Larrit had formed the habit of using derogatory words to describe her on social media.

The film star also accused the shoe vendor of being a bully.

Aigbe said she and Larrit were acquaintances until the entrepreneur turned into an “enemy” due to “reasons best known to her”.

“I have been bullied online several times by Larrit. She calls me unprintable names unprovoked, she took it a step further by physically assaulting me,” she wrote.

“This woman, for reasons best known to her slanders me online at every opportunity she gets. She has done many live videos and posts to this effect. I tried to reach out to her to understand what the issues were, but she chose to ignore me.”

“Lara and I are acquaintances. I have patronised her business and she also has done likewise. So I was surprised and confused how she suddenly became an enemy. I sent messages to her on WhatsApp, I called few people close to her to understand why she would decide to become an antagonist, all efforts proved abortive.”

Aigbe said she couldn’t take the insults anymore so she “decided to stand up for myself and I retaliated with the same energy”.

“At the party yesterday, she started with the same energy, throwing words at me, calling mean names and being disrespectful. Initially, I kept calm, and didn’t respond to her. People around her appealed to her to stop, yet Lara wouldn’t stop and so I decided to stand up for myself and I retaliated with the same energy,” she added.

“It became heated and everyone around tried to broker peace, but she still wouldn’t stop. At some point, she tried to throw a bottle at me but it hit a lady sitting in front of her and there was pandemonium. I stepped out to leave in the middle of the brouhaha but my friend pleaded with me to stay including the celebrant. I went back in and she started attacking me verbally again. Eventually, she was taken out of the party, and she left.

“She went overboard with her hate yesterday. The bottle could have harmed someone and it would become a criminal case. This was an unnecessary attack. However, I would like to apologise to fans and family who felt I should have handled the whole situation differently. I’m sorry.”