It is no longer news that Kokomaster D’banj and
his manager, Abisagboola Oluseun John,
popularly called Bankulli, have parted ways.
Since the news broke about two weeks ago,
both parties have kept mum over the issue,
thus leading to wild speculations. A version has
it that, “following repeated disagreements
between D’banj and Bankulli that bothered on
issues of trust, leading to accusations and
counter-accusations, D’banj got angry and
slapped Bankulli and subsequently fired him”.
Another version says; “The pair got into a
heated argument when D’banj found out
Bankulli went to Paris after the Koko concert to
work on Kanye West’s next album without his
knowledge. Bankulli allegedly left for Paris
after the Koko concert in December and his
employer/artiste wasn’t aware of his
‘clandestine’ trip to Paris to drop adlibs on
Kanye’s next album”. However, Entertainment
Gist can authoritatively reveal to you that the
relationship between D’banj and Bankulli
began to go sour towards the end of last year,
based on accusations that D’banj is very
insensitive and nonchalant. Sources in D’banj’s
camp who spoke with Entertainment Gist on
condition of anonymity revealed that, “what
really happened is an accumulation of D’banj’s
insensitive attitude, of course he’s a big star,
but he’s a very difficult person, its part of his
attitude and lifestyle”.
After the last edition of Koko Concert that was
held in December 2012 at the Eko Atlantic city,
the source claimed that D’banj went ahead to
do a lot of things without consulting with his
team, and on the few occasions he did, he was
insensitive, and rather chose to attend private
parties enjoying himself which in no small
measure contributed to some of the flops
recorded during the Koko concert, and this
further infuriated Bankulli. “Truthfully,
Bankulli travelled to Paris, France few days
after Koko Concert, and baba (D’banj) was
aware, but it’s not certain as at that time if he
was going to France to work with Kanye West
or not, but it seemed D’banj wasn’t comfortable
with the fact that Bankulli was getting more
attention from Kanye West’s camp” the source
said. The source laughed when posed with the
question if Bankuli was indeed fired. “Fired ke,
he walked away. Bankuli showed courage and
walked away because I believe he had had
enough. Working with D’banj is tough as hell.
Do you know that everybody that works with
baba always gets tired of him and walks away?
Fired him? No o.”
When contacted by Entertainment Gist, Bankulli
who was unreachable for days and later was
not taking calls on his mobile, declined to
comment on the issue. All he said was, “D’banj
didn’t fire me, I just decided to move on”. He
declined having any heated argument with
D’banj, or if he was in France to work with
Kanye West without D’banj’s consent.
For those who don’t know, D’banj and Bankulli
have not seen eye to eye this year, their
friendship however dates back to over 10 years
ago when Bankuli worked with R70 under DJ
Abass and Ayo Shonaiya to provide management
and agency support.
Recall that UK big boy Ayo Shonaiya was hugely
instrumental in D’banj’s break and rise to
stardom in Nigeria. All this while, Bankulli was
always in the background as the Nigerian
representative for R70 at a time when the UK-
based company was a major link between the
Nigerian music industry and the United
Kingdom. “Till date Bankulli still addresses Ayo
Shonaiya as his boss. Although his relationship
with D’Banj became prominent following the
Mo’Hits break up last year, both D’banj and
Bankulli have always been good friends. For
those in the know, Bankulli was hugely
instrumental in getting D’banj the G.O.O.D
music deal, because he was the one who
approached Kanye West at the Dubai airport to
listen to D’banj’s songs and that signaled the
beginning of the relationship between D’banj
and Kanye West.
The heavy set Bankuli is also a vocalist whose
vocals have been on songs like “Igwe” by
D’banj, “Now is the time” by Ikechukwu, as
well as a couple of tracks in D’banj’s
forthcoming album titled “DKM”. He also
featured and did the chorus on dbanj’s popular
single ‘Oyato’ released last year. He was the
musical creative director as well as the
manager to dbanj and db record after don jazzy
part ways with dbanj. Bankulli was the tour
manager of the second edition of Intro Summer
Jam a Nigerian hip hop concert in London were
Eddris and Maintain were the major acts in
2004 . Bankulli also has the credits of doing all
the ground work and media plug for JJC and
the 419 squad which included other back bone
music artistes like Dbanj, Don Jazzy, Queen
Onokala.
Born in Igbobini, Ondo State, Bankulli is a
University of Ibadan graduate with a BSc
Zoology/Animal Biology, he also doubles as the
CEO at BANKULLI ENTERTAINMENT, a
management and artiste A &R entertainment
company. Bankulli was one of D’Banj’s
mainframes, and few others who stayed loyal to
him, when everything came crumbling after his
face off with Don Jazzy.
Bankuli took over D’banj’s affairs after former
manager Sunday Are stepped down, following
the Mo’Hits 2012 controversy
