Leaked sex video: Court awards N5m damages against Oxlade

An Ikeja High Court in Lagos State has awarded N5 million damages against a Nigerian singer, Ikuforijimi Olaitan Abdulrahman, known professionally as Oxlade, over a leaked sex tape with a woman identified as John Blessing on social media.

In a judgement delivered on the 24th of January, 2023, Justice Olalekan Oresanya described the act of the musician secretly recording having sex with a woman as “despicable, horrendous, classless and distasteful.”

Oxlade’s sex video surfaced on social media without the woman’s consent.

The leaked tape sparked outrage and forced Oxlade to tender a public apology to the woman involved and his fans.

Blessing had, in March 2022, filed a suit before the Court seeking N20million damages and a declaration that the singer’s act of recording his explicit sexual acts without her knowledge amounted to flagrant contravention of enabling laws, violation of her fundamental rights to dignity, privacy and freedom from discrimination guaranteed under Sections 34 and 37 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended); and Articles 5 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Ratification and Enforcement), Act, CAP A9, LFN, 2004.

Justice Oresanya also berated the singer for treating the judicial process with disrespect and accused his counsel of aiding him in desecrating the temple of justice.

The judge who entered the Terms of Settlement dated 11th of January, 2023, ordered Oxlade to pay the sum of N5 million damages to Blessing in two instalments of N3 million and N2 million, respectively.