The organisers of the Headies Awards have disqualified Portable as a nominee at the 15th edition of the Nigerian music awards.
The West African Pilot reports that Portable, born Habeed Okikiola, who is a first-time nominee, snagged a spot in the Rookie of the Year and Best Street-Hop Artiste categories.
For the Rookie of the Year award, his co-nominees were Av, Fave, Magixx, and Ugoccie, and he was pitted against Bella Shmurda, Rexxie, Mohbad, Naira Marley, Nektunez and Goya Menor for the Best Street-Hop Artiste of the Year.
In a statement released on Tuesday, The Headies cited the singer’s ‘numerous indicting statements’, and his ‘incessant attention from the Nigerian Police and the general public in recent times’ as reasons for his disqualification.
Recall that the organisers of the awards had threatened to disqualify Portable after the singer took to social media to say he would kill whoever beats him to the awards in the categories he was nominated in.
“All those awards, I own them. Whoever is given those awards apart from me, I’ll ask them to kill the person. I’ll just ask them to kill you. Give unto Caesar what is for Caesar. My award, give it to me. Don’t give my award to another person, if you do, you will die,” he had said.
In response, the Headies demanded that the singer retracts the uncouth statement and apologise to his co-nominees, adding that failure to do so would amount to his automatic disqualification.
“We have notified the Nigerian police of Mr. Okokiola’s actions to fellow nominees,” the organisers stated in a broadcast via HipTV, its satellite TV channel.
“Also, demand for the immediate retraction of the video as well as a written apology to nominees in both categories and to The Headies has been made.
“Should Mr. Okikiola fail to meet our demands, we will not only disqualify him from participating in The Headies but also enforce the instrumentality of the law.”
Announcing Portable’s disqualification on Instagram on Tuesday, the organisers said he was disqualified due to a series of ‘misdemeanours via his social media platforms’.
“We regret to announce that following numerous indicting statements made by Mr. Habeeb Okikiola popularly knowns as “Portable”, and the incessant negative attention that Mr Okikiola has garnered from the Nigeria Police and the general public in recent times, the organisers of the Headies have resolved to disqualify Mr Okikiola as a nominee at the forthcoming 15th Headies Awards,” the statement reads.
“The decision to disqualify him is accentuated by series of misdemeanours by Mr Okikiola via his social media platforms. On the 25th of May 2022, he threatened to kill, harm or cause harm to the other nominees in the same categories of awards hewas nominated for, if he does not emerge the winner, precisely;
“Those are my awards. Anybody else who wins, I’ll ask for them to be killed. I will ask them to kill the person. If the organisers give my award to someone else, they will die.” — Mr Habeeb Okikiola.
“On the 18th of July 2022, Mr Okikiola published a video on his social media platforms where he stated that he is the founder of the notorious cult group, ‘One Million Boys’. The said group gained notoriety for maiming and robbing innocent Nigerians over the years. In his words, he said; “Have you heard of Ajah boys, One million Boys? I established them.”
“Furthermore, on the 17th of June 2022, Mr Habeeb Okikiola made a recording of himself where he ordered his group of friends to assault and inflict bodily harm on his accused friend, DJ Chicken. In his words, he said; “E na eleyi paa jo!” (Beat him mercilessly!)”
