Nollywood actress and filmmaker Iyabo Ojo broke her silence on Tuesday on the publicly reignited tension between Funke Akindele and Toyin Abraham Ajeyemi, revealing the extent of her personal mediation efforts after a viral video from the premiere of her film “The Return of Arinzo” at the Balmoral Event Centre in Lagos on Sunday showed Akindele appearing to ignore Abraham’s greeting entirely — looking away as Abraham attempted to acknowledge her. In a lengthy Instagram post, Ojo said she had previously gone to considerable personal lengths to broker peace between both actresses, describing a process that went beyond a simple conversation. “I tried my very best to settle both of them, cried, knelt down, begged both parties to embrace peace, which they both later did,” she wrote. The reconciliation she achieved came with a single binding condition: that neither party would shade the other publicly or air grievances on social media, and that any future issues would be handled privately and off camera. Their subsequent visible interactions at a film premiere months before Sunday’s incident had reassured the public that the peace had held.
The December breakdown, as Ojo described it, came when Abraham made public complaints about her movie in cinemas, alleging that someone was attempting to sabotage her release. Fans drew a line from the complaint toward Akindele, and that was enough to reignite the tension. “Toyin made some complaints about her movie in cinemas claiming some people or person was trying to sabotage her. Some fans pointed accusing fingers towards Funke, and that sparked up a fresh beef,” Ojo explained. In her account, the violation of the no-public-shading condition is what she holds responsible for the deterioration, and she expressed frustration that the peace framework she had personally constructed at considerable emotional cost broke down over a social media dynamic rather than a direct confrontation between the two women. Akindele’s “Behind The Scenes,” released in December 2025, earned N2.4 billion at the box office, while Abraham’s “Oversabi Aunty” surpassed N1 billion in February 2026 — making her the first debut solo director to reach that milestone — and the financial stakes of their parallel commercial relevance adds a competitive dimension to what has periodically surfaced as a personal rift.
Ojo also addressed the specific question of Abraham’s participation in “The Return of Arinzo,” clarifying that Abraham had originally been expected to appear in the film but withdrew at the last minute. “Toyin was supposed to be in it but she said she was exhausted, and she also had to travel, so she pulled out last minute. I was upset because it cost me a lot to rewrite the story, but the show must go on — we had a deadline to film if I wanted The Return of Arinzo to make 3rd of April,” she said. She confirmed that both parties subsequently resolved that specific issue and the matter was put to rest. In the broader context of Sunday’s premiere, many social media users read Ojo’s statement as implicitly favouring Akindele — noting that while she described Abraham as violating the peace condition, she made no corresponding criticism of Akindele’s conduct at the event itself, where the snub occurred publicly in front of a room full of colleagues and cameras.
