D’BANJ’S FORMER MANAGER, BANKULI BREAKS SILIENCE: “FIRED ME? NO, I WALKED AWAY”

FORMER manager of hip hop star, Koko master, D’banj, Abisagboola Oluseun John, popularly called Bankulli, may have broken his almost a month silence since the news broke about two weeks ago, that he was fired by his boss.
Both parties have kept mum over the issue after someone in D’banj’s camp ‘leaked’ the news. This development led to wild speculations. A version had 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, it is revealed that the relationship between D’banj and Bankulli began to wear thin towards the end of last year, based on accusations that D’banj is a “very insensitive and nonchalant person”. A Source close to D’banj’s who spoke 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 traveled to Paris, France few days after Koko Concert, and baba (D'banj) was aware of the trip, but it’s not clear 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, Bankulli said: “D’banj didn’t fire me, I just decided to move on. I was shocked when I read that D’banj ‘fired’ me. Whoever leaked that story was just being malicious.”
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. D’banj and Bankulli have not seen eye to eye this year, their friendship however goes back over a decade when Bankuli worked with R70 under DJ Abass and Ayo Shonaiya to provide management and agency support.
Bankulli’s relationship with D’Banj became prominent following the Mo’Hits break up last year. 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 D’banj and DB record after Don Jazzy parted ways with D’banj.
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 last loyalists 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.