Lagbaja in war of words with D'banj's Manager, Sunday Are

The ripples created by an interview granted by Sunday Are, an entertainment practitioner, is yet to settle one week after it was published. To this end, some of the personalities mentioned in the interview have been stepping forward to state their perspectives of the claims attributed to Are. Prominent among those who have stepped up to call everything Sunday Are said in the press chat as ‘lies’ is the celebrated masked musician, Lagbaja.
In a statement made available to Friday Flavour, the gifted saxophinist called it ‘delusions of grandeur’! Are, while responding to questions during the interview, had attributed the success made by musicians like Asa, Majek Fashek, Tunde and Wunmi Obe, Lagbaja and Wasiu Ayinde Marshall amongst others to his efforts. According to him, “Most people don’t really know what I’ve achieved in my life. How would anyone know that I was the one that set up Tunde and Wunmi Obe’s band? How many people know I set up D’Banj and the Mo’hits band? “Nobody remembers that I took Obesere to Sony Music and helped him record Asakasa, O.B.T.K, Mr. Teacher. Nobody knows I worked alongside Laolu Akins, Shina Peters, Wasiu Ayide Marshal and many others”. On Lagbaja, he said, “We had a concept which was to have a faceless human being that can sing, play the instrument and dance. Initially, we were using one of our friends, Kunle Ojomo. And at a time, we used different persons to wear the mask. But one day, I told Lagbaja that he needed to start wearing the mask.
When I told him that he had to start wearing the mask, he was angry at the beginning. I told him the concept was most suitable for one who plays the instrument and who can also dance. He could sing, dance and play the instrument. But after three months of trying out the mask, he got used to it and now Lagbaja has come to stay. But it took my iron hand to achieve that and I thank God”. However, Lagbaja in a stronglyworded rebuttal said, “I feel a little shame that I would sink as low as to respond to the megalomaniac rant of Sunday Are. I typically would never respond to such, for I live by a different code. Let me simply state unequivocally that every single claim that Sunday Are made in these articles about his role with Lagbaja, is an absolute lie. Every single one; never happened”. Yinka Oyedeji, Lagbaja’s ex- manager, also refuted Sunday Are’s claims, saying he worked with them only as a sound engineer.
“In fact, he was the sound engineer for the band, not at the studio during recordings. Sunday left the band because he could not handle the sophisticated equipment the band got for its performances later and we had to get another person”. Similarly, Mr. Pascal Ott, a French teacher and a former Assistant Director of Alliance Francais in Lagos said he was disturbed by the falsification of history as contained in Are’s unsubstantiated claims.
Tunde Obe, who was also mentioned admitted Are worked with him in the 90s, but could not claim the glory for the brand called T.W.O. “It is true that T.W.O had a working relationship with Sunday Are in the 90s. So I would definitely not go as far as saying he is lying. At the same time, I won’t agree that he built the brand, TWO, but I will be gracious enough to say the truth lies somewhere in the middle. It was Sunday Are alongside Tunde and Wunmi Obe that auditioned and selected the original set of musicians that made up ore band, Déjà vu. Sunday Are acted as our manager and also our sound engineer till about 2001. But to say he built the brand T.W.O will be wrong, because we adopted TWO in 2003”. Reacting to the development, Laolu Akins said he did not want to be dragged into the raging controversy.
“It should not be blown out of proportion. The mere fact that he worked as Lagbaja’s sound engineer means he worked with him. Sunday Are also worked with me and I know he worked with Majek Fashek’s band”.

-NGOZI EMEDOLIBE