Nigerian rapper and actor, Folarin Falana, aka Falz, has recounted his near-death experience while returning from a wedding ceremony he performed in the nation’s capital city, Abuja, in 2013.
According a podcast, Falz was with his managers, Femisoro Ajayi and Sidney Sule, were in the car when dangerous-looking men shot at the car they were in, in which the driver of the car lost his life on the spot.
He further revealed that the men who attacked them were “turban-tying, AK47-wielding,” and it was during the peak days of Boko Haram in the country.
He made this known while appearing on the latest episode of Untapped with media personality Gbemi O.
In his words: “It was after NYSC, and this was me working in my dad’s firm as a lawyer in 2013.
Then we got a call to come to Abuja for a show. The payment was N1 million, and logistics will be taken care of. It was a wedding, so we took the trip.
“There was no flight from Abuja to Lagos. So we hired a car from Abuja to Benin. I led a solid prayer, and it was probably what ended up saving us.
“It was broad daylight, and we started the trip around 2p.m. We fell asleep during the trip.
Then we just heard a loud bang. We woke up to see these turban-tying, AK47-wielding, dangerous-looking men in the middle of the expressway.
“The bang we heard was a gunshot they had shot at the car. They shot at our car again, and the bullet came flying in between everyone. Everything happened so fast.
They shot at us again, and the bullet hit the driver in the eye. The driver died instantly. The car started moving. It was wild. I remember seeing the car heading for a ditch and just thinking, this is it.
“Then we passed out. I was the first to come around. I got out of the car and saw one of the men asking, ‘Where is the money?’ I told him there was no money. He goes to the car looking for cash.
“We had left Abuja, but we hadn’t gotten to Lokoja. It was all forest. It was the peak of Boko Haram, and we were somewhere in the north.
“We started to hear sirens from far away. The police did not come near. At this point, they increased fire and started shooting. They later moved away from us and retreated.
“We tried to stop cars on the expressway, but not a single soul stopped. A police guy eventually came, and another guy said he was a doctor.”
Falz thought his parents would never allowed him to continue his music career after the sad experience.
