Content creator and actress Oluwabukunmi Adeaga-Ilori, popularly known as Kiekie, has recounted how she was harassed by thugs while shooting content in Lagos.
Kiekie spoke last week Tuesday during the second panel session at the QEDNG Creative Powerhouse Summit 2.0, held at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja GRA, Lagos.
The summit, organised by Mighty Media Plus Network Limited, publishers of QEDNG, had the theme “Creativity, Culture and Nigeria’s Next Chapter”.
Speaking about the challenges creatives face while filming in public spaces, Kiekie recalled an incident at Obalende where she was stopped after shooting a one minute video.
She said, “So I shot, and I was feeling cool with myself, you know. I thought maybe it’s love and light. So by the time I finished the video shoot, I said, let me be going home. That’s how they blocked the garage. So we started to negotiate the exit plan. So we started from one million. I said, ‘one million, that’s on the high side’. So after going back and forth, I begged them, begged them, I used my mommy to beg them, used my daddy to beg them, I ended up paying something around 700,000. Yes, for a one-minute video.”
Kiekie said she was frightened by the incident, adding that she saw almost 200 people around her at the time.
She added, “So when I posted the video on social media, I put in the caption that you must share this video. What I’m saying is, making the money back is relative, to be very honest. If not, I felt I was afraid. I was scared on that day. I looked around me and I saw almost 200 people, and I was asking, what is going on?”
She also recounted another experience while shooting content for Ileya at Kara, near Berger.
“For Ileya, I shot this content where I went to Kara, somewhere after Berger. I literally had to pull up with security. That was how I shot that content,” she said.
According to Kiekie, the content was less than two minutes long, but she spent close to N500,000 on security.
“So now, imagine if I had to pull up with a full squad of security just because I… anyone that saw that content, it was barely two minutes. To be able to shoot a two-minute content, and at the end of the day, I still spent close to 500,000. Just that I spent that. So now, but what that money did was to make me feel safe and to shoot in time. So I didn’t have to waste time and all that,” she said.
Kiekie also recalled an incident in Abeokuta where equipment used for a production was seized, resulting in a confrontation involving members of the production team.
“I’ve been in situations where equipment are been seized. I remember I was on a set in Abeokuta, plus actor, plus producer, plus director, all of us started fighting. Even me I started fighting, but I stood at back of Mr Macaroni because he’s big,” she said.
She said such experiences make content production more difficult and expensive for creatives.
“But the point is, if we can create a saner environment, it would even help productivity. Because I got home on that day and I was watching that video, and I said, ‘ah, there’s one part I needed to reshoot.’ Reshoot? Ah, no, that one won’t work, they can shoot me in the process.”
Kiekie began her career in television and fashion before gaining wider recognition through digital content. She has worked as a television presenter, fashion designer, actress and producer.
Her work has earned her several awards, including the Force of Instagram category at the 2022 Trendupp Awards and the Online and Social Content Creator category at the 2023 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards.
In 2024, she won the Force of Influence Nigeria award at the Trendupp Awards, recognising her influence in Nigeria’s social media space.
Kiekie has also hosted the Trendupp Awards and continued to work across television, fashion, acting and digital entertainment
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