…The victims, the law, the blackmailers

…Blame the leakage on carelessness of the victims–Ubani

By BENJAMIN NJOKU

Beautiful Uche Iwuji was one of the popular faces who ruled the screen in the early 2000, starring in several movies, including her debut movie, “Tears in Heaven” which launched her into prominence and earned her AMAA nomination in the Best Actress category back then .

But no sooner had she hit the limelight than her name was embroiled in a sex tape scandal that almost ruined her acting career.

The actress got married to her ex-oil magnate husband, Mr. Juwon Lawal in 2012, but their marriage crashed 15 months after her unclad photo was leaked to the internet alongside several allegations of infidelity. The actress’s private photo was said to have landed in the wrong hands, leading to the leak on the internet. Uche’s ordeal, was not different from the ugly experiences of subsequent victims of sex tape scandals in the Nigerian entertainment industry.

For the actress, the price of such an unprecedented scandal was enormous. The mother of one recalled how she relocated abroad to escape from the humiliation and disgrace that trailed her viral nude photo.

She also took solace in God, who helped her to overcome the shame after her friends and close associates abandoned her to her fate. Even at that, one can argue that Iwuji hasn’t overcome the trauma till date.

While Iwuji’s bleeding wound was yet to heal, another sex tape surfaced online in 2017. It was the nude pictures of actress Anita Hogan with her Dutch husband which was disgusting.

The actress was embarrassed after her raunchy pictures, which she stored on her laptop, were allegedly leaked by the repairer she had given the device to fix. The leakage cost her everything, except her marriage and till date, Hogan is still licking her wounds.

According to the actress, the unclad pictures were meant for the viewing pleasure of her Dutch husband and were meant to be sent to him. She forgot to delete the photographs before handing over her laptop to the repairer. Hogan, who participated in the 2005 Gulder Ultimate search was heartbroken as the incident forced her to abandon her flourishing career and went into isolation.

In one of her Instagram posts, the actress showed that she’s still suffering from rejection and abandonment. It’s also believed to be part of the reason Hogan disappeared, relocating abroad with her family to allow her “open wound” to heal.

Unlike Iwuji and Hogan’s predicaments, Tiwa Savage and Empress Njamah’s sex tape scandals appeared to be the worst in the history of sex tape scandals in Nigeria. The two scandals shook the very foundation of the country’s entertainment circuit.

Precisely, in October, 2021, Tiwa Savage had raised alarm ahead of time, in a radio interview in the United States that she was being blackmailed over a sex tape of herself with her partner. Resigning to fate, the songstress said she had decided to let the blackmailers go ahead and release the tape as she wouldn’t let anyone make money off her for engaging in something as natural as sex.

Despite Tiwa Savage’s tough stance, the blackmailers didn’t retreat, nor did it reduce the backlash on social media after the tape was eventually released in the same month. The singer became a hot topic of discussion everywhere, causing her to lose some of her endorsement deals, as fans came after her, letting her know how bad an example she was, not only to her son, but to many young ladies that look up to her.

The singer had claimed that the video was accidentally posted on Snapchat by her lover, who immediately deleted it. She expressed fear of the intimate clip negatively affecting her career and public image. It took divine intervention for the pop queen to pull through the scandal, even when many opined that the sex tape scandal was a publicity stunt for her now released remix of ‘Somebody’s son” featuring Brandy.

Actress Empress Njamah’s sex tape scandal was another bitter pill to swallow. She was a victim of ‘pay back time’ from a bad relationship. Her estranged lover, George Wade had threatened to release the actress’s sex tape early this year after she called off their engagement and went into hiding. “I swear to God, you don’t know what’s coming” George had threatened in the video. He carried out his threats, and hell was let loose. In December 2022, Njamah had revealed that the engagement video posted on her Instagram page earlier in the month was made under duress, adding that she had been scammed, beaten and held hostage by Wade before her eventual escape.

The estranged lover came for his ‘pound of flesh’ as he created a group where he added over a hundred contacts, including bloggers, sharing bedroom videos of the actress. Empress and ex-boy friend broke up last year with the actress accusing her ‘ex-fiance’ of physically assaulting her, in a Live stream via her business Instagram.

Njamah claimed that the sex tape was secretly recorded by Wade and that he was the one in the video with her but that he hid his face. Following the leakage, Njamah suffered severe humiliation, emotional trauma and backlash on the internet. The actress may be fighting like hell to get the tape offline but to no avail as it’s still littered all over the internet. And one could imagine what the plumpy actress is currently passing through. Interestingly, the blackmailer was later arrested in Liberia to face the music.

It was the same story with youthful Chidinma Okeke,who became a victim of betrayal and exploitation in the long run. The ex-beauty queen, who was on the verge of completing her reign as Miss Anambra, woke up one morning to find an explicit video of herself trending on the internet.

The footage showed her engaged in sexual acts with another girl. Chidinma faced backlash, condemnation from all quarters and eventually, her title was revoked before her reign expired. She later opened up about the role that the organizers played in the leaking of the sex tape. But then, it was a matter of crying over spilled milk, as people were more concerned with the implied lesbianism than the fact that a 19-year-old girl might have been exploited.

What do we say of the sex tape of TikTik star Esther Raphael popularly known as The Buba Girl, which was leaked recently by her boyfriend. Esther had sent internet agog after a video of herself engaged in a live masturbation was leaked online. She was seen in the viral video utilizing her two middle fingers to simulate self-gratification, while licking her fingers on a bed. The Calabar-born TikTok star claimed that she was blackmailed by some guys about a year ago, who decided to leak her video because she didn’t agree to their terms. She had sent her nude video to her boyfriend which was meant to be seen just once. But the boyfriend recorded it with another phone. In the process, the video landed in the hands of some bad guys and that was the beginning of her ordeal. The blackmailers started demanding money from her to keep it secret, and when she didn’t cooperate with them, they leaked the sex tape.

Like Esther, the most recent sex tape scandal rocking the industry is that of the curvaceous actress, Moyo Lawal. The actress’s ex-lover leaked her sex tape to get at her, setting the internet agog like a wildfire. In an Instagram post, Lawal claimed that her controversial video was an old recording with her ex-fiancé years ago. She added that nobody could use sex tape to drag her down after the sacrifices she made to keep their relationship. But the actress failed to learn from the mistakes of past victims, believing that her past would never come haunting her present.

From the foregoing, the likes of former BBNaija ‘Lockdown’ housemate, Nengi Rebecca Hampson, veteran singer 9ice, former Kannywood actress, Maryam Hiyana among others have also had their own fair shares of the sex tape scandals in the past.

With the exception of Afrobeats singer Oxlade who was slammed with N5 million damages by a Lagos High Court following a leaked explicit sex tape of himself with a woman on social media app, Snapchat, no other blackmailer may have been penalized so far in Nigeria. A sex tape of the singer had surfaced online in February 2022, without the knowledge and consent of the woman involved in the video. The leaked video sparked public outrage, forcing Oxlade to issue an apology to his fans and to the woman in the video. The affected woman, John Blessing dragged the singer to court and got judgment in her favour. That’s should be the way to go, but can these victims dare to tread the path?

What the law says about leaking someone’s sex tape

Sadly, the sex tape scandal has become an integral part of the industry. It’s believed to be “ungodly’ for anyone to leak another person’s sex tape online for whatever reason. Each case is different, and involves issues of privacy and betrayal. But while the fire is still raging, the question on the lips of everyone is “what’s the immediate cause of this aberration? Is there no law in Nigeria put in place against this kind of act of obtaining and leaking peoples’ nudes or sex tape without their consent?

According to an entertainment lawyer and filmmaker, Nobert Ajaegbu, Section 134 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State actually prohibits having sex in the open, whereas section 136 of the same criminal law of Lagos state prohibits all manners of indecent exposure that is capable of corrupting public morals. The law, he said, frowns at leaked sex tapes on the part of any person engaging in it.

The other part of it, is the cyber law, which he said protects people from those engaged in Cyber bullying. “Most times, it is used as a tool of blackmail by an ex boyfriend or so. But whatever it is, the law frowns at all manner of cyber bullying and it’s a crime in law,” Ajaegbu added.

He, however, advised female celebrities to learn from the mistakes of their colleagues and be wise.

“They have to be a little more conscious about their privacy. Do not share your nude video with anybody. I really don’t know why people reserve all these nude videos. They should be watchful and at the same time be wary of those possible avenues of having them leaked. Save yourselves the energy of trying to block it, retract it and assuage the people by being careful about your private lives. For the blackmailers, the long arms of the law must actually come after them except you are not the one that leaked the sex tape,” the filmmaker said in a chat with our reporter.

Also, there are existing laws already in place covering issues of this nature; The criminal Code and the cybercrime Act of 2015 take care of the matter. Many have however expressed the need for more encompassing laws on these issues with more stiffer punishments to be put in place.

Justice O.A Oresanya of Lagos High Court, while delivering judgment against Oxlade, described it as “despicable, horrendous, distasteful and classless.”

According to Ajaegbu, the details surrounding the sex tapes can get messy. He described the ‘sex tape scandals as the latest evil associated with the new media. “If you look at it, those victims are either careless with their privacy or they are behind the release of such sex tapes,” Ajaegbu stated.

Root cause of sex tape leakage

He, however, cited the carelessness of these victims with their privacy coupled with their inability to learn from the mistakes of past victims of blackmails as the sex tape scandal is on the rise in recent times. Ajaegbu argued that the leaked sex tapes are not limited to entertainers, even though they are the ones in the limelight. Across the society, many married women are also involved in the ugly act.

According to him, “There are a lot of negative trends associated with the new media. As the case may be, morality and law are two complimentary tools for human survival, One part is the issue of morality, it’s highly condemnable, it’s ungodly and it’s indecent to expose sex in the open in whatever manner, be it deliberate, or otherwise. It’s indecent to have such exposure . The second part is the law, which actually frowns at whoever will encourage indecent exposure or sex in the public.”

Meanwhile, commenting on the root cause of sex tape leakage, a seasoned journalist, Tony Ubani blamed it on soured relationships, adding that most aggrieved men tend to use it as a ‘pay back’ after breaking up with a woman on whom he has invested heavily and her family. He said, it’s also a romantic thing as most of these ladies easily forget, when they are drawn into it. .

“ There’s nothing you cannot do for love. You can record yourselves when you are having your baths, making love, but when the love go sour, it’s unimaginable what follows thereafter,”Ubani said