Popular Nigerian comedian, Bennett Chinedu Daniel, better known as Acapella, has revealed that he received multiple threats after speaking out in defence of a viral post alleging that Lagos smells.
The controversy began last week when influencer Scott Iguma posted a video describing Lagos as smelly and full of “big mosquitoes”. The comment went viral and sparked backlash.
Reacting to the clip, Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, slammed the claims, accusing certain individuals who migrated to Lagos from other states of deliberately tarnishing the image of the city.
Wahab alleged that “some of these migrants” were using social media to “spread harmful narratives” to undermine the progress of Lagos.
Acapella, however, didn’t hold back. He fired back at the commissioner on X (formerly Twitter), accusing him of double standards and ethnic bias.
“This same commissioner will not reply when Lagosians complain about flooding or dirty gutters,” he posted earlier in the week. “But once it’s someone from another region pointing it out, suddenly they say it’s an attack.”
The heated exchange sparked a wave of reactions on social media, with many supporters of the Lagos State Government dragging the comedian online.
In a follow-up post on Tuesday, Acapella claimed that the backlash extended beyond online insults to actual threats in his DMs and phone calls.
“Over the past days, as expected, I’ve received several DMs and a few calls making empty threats here and there. But let me make it clear that no Nigerian is more Nigerian than any other Nigerian,” he wrote.
He added that criticising the country’s problems does not make one unpatriotic and insisted that acknowledging challenges is the first step towards solutions.
“Don’t let anybody gaslight you into believing you are de-marketing the country — especially when you point out the ills that befall us as a nation.”
“The first step to solving any problem is to first identify there’s one. We are all we have. I hope with these few points of mine, I rest my case for now.”
Acapella, known for his satire and political commentary, has often used his comedy to address corruption, bad governance, and injustice across Nigeria.
