Nollywood actress and director, Toyin Abraham Ajeyemi, has blamed political opposition for the bad reviews her movie, ‘Ijakumo’, is receiving on social media.
‘Ijakumo, the Born Again Stripper’ premiered at cinemas in December last year, but was recently released via Netflix on Friday.
The new release has been met with mixed reactions on the microblogging platform, Twitter. Several tweeps hailed the movie producer and actors for their amazing performances, while others claimed the movie was flawed for different reasons.
@alphaamary opined that “Ijakumo is a very interesting movie made out of intelligent script writing.”
“Ijakumo is not as bad as you guys are portraying it to be. Some scenes were unnecessary, yes! But, honestly it’s a good watch, and generally, it’s a 6/10 for me,” @Only1two wrote.
@MrFokanBale claimed the movie was “very good” but was marred by “a poor ending.”
“I don’t get why these high-budget Nollywood movies are so obsessed with fighting in movies. I mean, that’s not us, we don’t fight this way. I actually enjoyed Ijakumo up until the last 30 minutes of the movie. Everything went downhill from there till the end,” @iamdejmax tweeted.
@Babygyalxxx also wrote. “Ijakumo is the most useless movie I’ve seen this year. This one is not even hate!! Alakada, at least, was fun. I can’t believe people even paid to watch this, Omo! Toyin, please be hiring script writer, abeg.”
@Feyisparkles said, “You people that are telling Toyin that [the] movie is good is the reason she won’t improve on her mediocre movies. If your movie is good, no agenda can trump it.
“Pack up that victim sh*t up; Ijakumo is terrible because the plot was bad, not because you supported a different presidential candidate.”
Responding to the negative comments, the actress claimed that many who were critical of the movie were those opposed to her political choice in the 2023 Presidential election.
“You all went to create WhatsApp group because of Ijakumo, the born-again stripper, please continue,” she tweeted on Saturday.
“Maybe today I will kuku break the table. You all will tell the world why choosing my own candidate is a crime and yours isn’t. Loni yi mo mura yin wa (today I’m prepared for you).
“You all think you have monopoly to talk sh*t; I’m here today for those people in that WhatsApp group. Ijakumo the born-again stripper was accepted in USA and Odeon cinemas and was showing same time Nigerian cinemas were showing it, I might keep mute for other things, but when it comes to my work, I will speak out.”
Abrahams later apologised for her outburst and asked critics to share their opinions about the movie “with love”.
“And to everyone who genuinely loves and appreciates my work and feels bad about anything tweeted, please always remember I’m human and I love you all,” she wrote in the follow-up tweet.
The actress has repeatedly accused members of opposition parties of bullying her after she declared support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2022.
Ijakumo follows the story of a spiritualist, Asabi, who seeks vengeance against a former lover turned pastor. She employs the help of a stripper to lure the cleric to his doom.
Directed by Adebayo Tijani, the movie stars Toyin Abraham, Kunle Remi, Lolade Okusanya, Bimbo Akintola, Olumide Oworu, and Lillian Afegbai.
