Abejide, an Ekiti visual art icon and retired Assistant Director of Ethnography, said attempts were being made to “gag” him and rewrite events after he publicly raised the matter.
An 86-year-old veteran visual artist, Elder Emmanuel Oladunjoye Abejide, has rejected calls to apologise after alleging that four of his award-winning artworks, selected for purchase by former Ekiti State First Lady, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, during a 2020 state-sponsored exhibition, went missing without payment.
Abejide, an Ekiti visual art icon and retired Assistant Director of Ethnography, said attempts were being made to “gag” him and rewrite events after he publicly raised the matter.
In a detailed statement, the octogenarian artist insisted that his claims were factual and supported by documentary evidence, including correspondence attributed to the former First Lady herself, which, he said, placed responsibility for the artworks squarely on officials of the Ekiti State Ministry of Arts and Culture.
The controversy stems from an exhibition titled Steady Strides, held between October 14 and 17, 2020, at the Adetiloye Hall, Ado-Ekiti, and organised by the Ekiti State Ministry of Arts and Culture in collaboration with the Society of Ekiti Contemporary Artists (SOECA).
The exhibition was declared open by Erelu Bisi Fayemi, who also presented prizes to outstanding artists following a juried selection process conducted by external academics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the University of Benin.
Abejide said two of his works, Seven Yams on Stake and Isan Pottery Market, won second and seventh prizes respectively, earning him ₦150,000, which was paid publicly at the event.
He further alleged that after the prize presentation, the former First Lady toured the exhibition a second time and personally selected additional artworks she intended to purchase, including two more of his pieces, Jakan Embroidery and Boko Haram, bringing the total number of his selected works to four.
According to him, ministry officials and exhibition organisers collected the selected artworks, assuring artists that pricing negotiations and payment would follow.
“All the selected works were left in a pile at the hall under the custody of the ministry and organisers, with a promise that we would be contacted for negotiation,” Abejide said, adding that the promised meeting never held.
Abejide said repeated efforts to follow up with the then Commissioner for Arts and Culture, Prof. Rasaki Ojo Bakare, ministry officials, SOECA executives, and the First Lady’s office yielded no result.
He said he was shocked when Bakare later claimed the ministry bore no responsibility, alleging that artists “abandoned” their works, a claim Abejide described as false and illogical.
“How could artists remove works from a pile under ministry custody without any alarm?” he asked.
The issue resurfaced after Abejide spoke to SaharaReporters, prompting the Ministry of Arts and Culture to summon him on January 30, 2026.
He described the meeting as hostile, alleging that he was surrounded by officials with cameras and pressured to apologise to the former First Lady for “tarnishing her image.”
He said: “I told them in the Ministry of Arts and Culture that I could not apologise for an offence I did not commit. I explained that my claims were neither malicious, lies, misleading, nor a misrepresentation of facts, and that they were not politically motivated. However, they deliberately quoted me out of context, carving out only portions that suited their purpose.
“By 12:50 p.m. on January 29, the Permanent Secretary, Prince Adenusi, invited me to Ado-Ekiti between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on January 30. My people advised me to hire a lawyer to avoid being dragged into trouble, but I declined. I arrived at the ministry by 10 a.m.
“The Permanent Secretary arrived shortly after, and a team of ministry officials, led by him, surrounded me with cameras. I recognised Mr. Ejiro, an art director in the ministry, among those taking photographs.
“The Permanent Secretary asked if I knew the reason for my invitation, and I answered in the affirmative. I explained how the exhibition held between October 14 and 17, 2020, and that the First Lady visited on October 15, not the 16th as wrongly claimed.”
He said he vehemently rejected the use of words such as “malicious,” “misrepresentation of facts,” and “lies” to describe his actions, insisting that artists did not abandon their works at the Adetiloye Hall.
“I could not have left my four best artworks behind and taken the remaining six home,” he said.
Abejide stated that no artist was asked to deliver artworks to the First Lady’s office, stressing that it was the duty of the exhibition organisers and ministry officials to handle the process.
He said Fayemi herself admitted in her response that she left the artworks in the care of ministry officials and organisers after the event.
He further disclosed that he was asked to apologise to the former First Lady for “tarnishing her image” through the SaharaReporters publication, a request he said he strongly rejected.
“I committed no crime,” he said, adding that Fayemi’s own statement confirmed that officials of the ministry were responsible for pricing and payment.
Abejide said the ministry’s Permanent Secretary later declared that neither the former First Lady nor any ministry official could be held responsible, while urging him to stop further publications.
He said he was given ₦10,000 for transportation and told that Fayemi wanted his bank details to “compensate” him, an offer he said did not address the fundamental issue of accountability.
He also accused the President of the Society of Ekiti-State Creative Artists (SOECA), Prince Caleb Osasona, of issuing a contradictory press statement claiming that the former First Lady instructed artists to deliver artworks to her office, a claim Abejide described as false and unsupported.
He questioned how negotiation information reached him on November 9, 2020, if the artworks had truly been abandoned.
Raising a series of questions, Abejide asked what became of the artworks, how they could disappear from ministry custody without alarm, and why responsibility was being deflected.
He demanded a public apology from the exhibition organisers and ministry officials for what he described as defamatory labels used against him.
“I deserve an apology from the organisers of the Steady Strides exhibition and officials of the ministry for the abusive words used in their publications, including ‘misleading,’ ‘misrepresentation of facts,’ ‘lies,’ and ‘malicious,’ which were aimed at shifting blame for their proven irresponsibility onto me,” he said.
Abejide maintained that Fayemi’s own statement supports his claim that the artworks were left in the custody of ministry officials.
“So who is responsible for their disappearance?” he asked.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that Fayemi denied taking or withholding any artwork without payment.
In a statement signed by her Special Assistant on Media, Olusegun Lawal, Fayemi described the report as “misleading” and “a gross misrepresentation of facts.”
She said she never took possession of any artwork and that ministry officials told her they would handle documentation, valuation, and payment.
“I was ready to pay immediately. However, officials of the ministry said they would handle the entire process. I left the artworks in the care of the organisers and exited the venue,” she said.
Fayemi noted that she remained in office for two years after the exhibition and that the matter was never brought to her attention during that period, calling on the Ministry of Arts and Culture to investigate and clarify any administrative lapses.