A sum of N10 million has been slammed on a popular Nigerian musician, Duncan Wene Mighty Okechukwu, also known as Duncan Mighty, over an alleged breach of contractual obligation to perform live at the grand opening festival of Resorts Carabana in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
Duncan Mighty was said to have collected a sum of N3 million as a fee to perform as the guest artist during the grand opening from the promoter of the resort, Mr Nse Essien, but he failed to show up.
In a letter dated January, 7, 2022, and addressed to Duncan Mighty by Mr Essien's lawyer, Inibehe Effiong (Esq), the breach of contract has caused a lot of mental distress, financial loss, negative business rating and reputational damage to the organisers after wide publicity of his (Duncan Mighty) presence at the occasion.
The lawyer, in addition to the payment for damages, demanded the refund of N3 million and an unreserved public apology which must be published as video on his Instagram page.
Part of the letter obtained by our correspondent read thus, "You entered into a Contract with our client, under which you accepted our client's offer to perform as a guest artist at the grand opening festival of Resorts Carabana held in Uyo on the 2nd day of January, 2022.
"By the mutually agreed terms of the contract, the consideration for your appearance and musical performance at the event was N2,500,000.00 (Two Million Five Hundred Thousand Naira) in addition to the sum of N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) for business class air tickets since you insisted on traveling by air to Uyo with two members of your crew.
"Our client dutifully fulfilled his obligations under the contract by paying the sum of N3,000,000.00 (Three Million Naira) in two tranches of N2,000,000.00 (Two Million Naira) and N1,000,000.00 (One Million Naira) respectively being the cumulative amount accruable to you for your live performance and flight/travel expenses.
"Being a public event, our client embarked on rigorous publicity and spent significant amount of money on advertorials announcing to the whole world that you, Duncan Mighty, will be performing live at the said event.
"To the utter consternation and indescribable embarrassment of our client, you failed or refused to attend the well-publicized event. As a direct result of your absence at the event, our client has suffered emotional distress, psychological trauma, financial loses, reputational damage, negative business rating and public odium.
"Our client has further briefed us that neither you, nor any member of your team, deemed it pertinent to reach out to our client after defaulting on your contractual obligation. You treated our client with contempt, not minding that our client had publicized your invitation to the event and spent considerable amount of money in furtherance of same.
"It is the light of the foregoing that we demand the following from you: Refund of the sum of N3,000,000.00 (Three Million Naira) paid into your account by our client which you have not earned, having failed to fulfil the purpose for which the money was paid by our client to you.
"Publish a video on your Instagram page apologizing unreservedly to our client, his guests and members of the public who came to the event in expectation of your attendance and live performance.
Pay the sum of N10,000,000.00 (Ten Million Naira) to our client as damages for the breach of your contractual obligation, the resultant embarrassment, mental distress, reputational damage and financial loses occasioned to our client on account of your failure to perform at the event."
The letter concluded with a warning that failure to meet the demands within 48 hours of the receipt of the form would make them take legal measures against him.
Meanwhile, when contacted, the Special Assistant to Governor Udom Emmanuel on Entertainment, David Sergeant (Utang Akwa Ibom), said the promoters of the event can always seek redress in the court of law.
According to him, "the ideal thing is to take the person to court, that is a breach of contract and it's against the law. Alternatively, if the person explains to the promoters the reason he or she could not come and refund the money, then the lawsuit may not be neccessary."
However, all efforts to reach Duncan Mighty, to get his own side of the story, proved abortive as all the calls put across to him as well as text messages and an email were ignored.
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