How Promoting Funke Akindele’s Film Led To Feud With Toyin Abraham - Abike Shugaa

Pelumi Olawuni, the TikTok star popularly known as Abike Shugaa, has revealed what caused her fallout with Nollywood actress Toyin Abraham.

The tension between them dates back to 2023 after Abike appeared in Abraham’s movie “Malaika.”

Questions were raised at the time when she didn’t actively promote the film, leading some people online to accuse her of being ungrateful.

In a YouTube video, Abike explained that the situation worsened after she promoted a project by Funke Akindele titled “She Must Be Obeyed” around the same period “Malaika” was being pushed.

She said she had worked with Funke Akindele before as an influencer, earning $600 and $800 for past promotions.

However, she once turned down another offer to avoid clashing with Toyin Abraham’s project “Ijakumo.”

According to her, things became confusing when she later saw Abraham support another colleague’s film, “Ada Omo Daddy,” by Mercy Aigbe.

She said she was told it was fine to promote fellow actors, which influenced her decision to accept Akindele’s offer and share an unboxing video for “She Must Be Obeyed.”

Abike Shugaa claimed she informed Abraham before posting the content, but the actress reacted angrily after it went live, which made the situation worse.

She said, “I’m not an ungrateful person, my mum didn’t raise me that way, and I didn’t do anything wrong, sincerely. There have also been misconceptions about the amount she paid me for films. For the first film she featured me in, ‘Ago Alago’, she paid me 50k. Before ‘Ijakumo’, I was already getting big on TikTok, and I was already added as an influencer for Funke Akindele’s film promotion, which I was paid $600 for, and $800 for promotion of another film as an influencer.

“During ‘Ijakumo’ production, I rejected a promotion job from Funke Akindele because Toyin Abraham already told me I would be on the ‘Ijakumo’ set. In the movie, I acted two scenes and she paid me 50k for that. During the promotion, I created content a lot and even invited my friends. But at the end of the day, my part in ‘Ijakumo’ didn’t make the final cut, which I was hurt by, so I started distancing myself.

“Then ‘Malaika’ came, and she said she would need me on set for over a month and asked that I bring over 20 clothes. Before then, there was a time she asked that I help her go to the bank to send 400k to someone, but I was busy working on something, so I sent it from my money and asked her to pay me later. So after a week of filming ‘Malaika’, she paid me 500k.

“During ‘Malaika’ promotion, Funke Akindele also reached out to my manager that she needed some influencers to promote her movies, but asked that my name should be removed from the influencers. But because of what Toyin Abraham had told me before — that it doesn’t matter if you show support for your colleagues, even if it once looked like a clash of interest — I accepted to unbox Funke Akindele’s movie premiere box but didn’t do content.

“I told Toyin Abraham about the unboxing video, but when I posted it, she sent me a long message, angry and cursing. I was confused because I had told her before doing it, and she had earlier said I could promote my colleagues’ movies.”

“Then it escalated. She started reporting me to people because I betrayed her trust. I apologised, but she gave a strict warning to delete all content about ‘Malaika’ off my page.”

Abike Shugaa further claimed that despite her apology, the actress threatened to damage her reputation, which deepened the fallout.