Olaiya Igwe, a veteran Nollywood actor, has talked about one of his greatest regrets: letting famous gospel singer Tope Alabi down on her wedding day.
According to a Hitgist story, the actor said the incident happened years ago when he bought a fancy car after his hit film, Ololade Mr. Money, became successful.
At the time, Tope Alabi and her husband, Soji, approached him with a request to use the car as their official wedding vehicle. He initially agreed to lend it to them, but as the wedding day approached, he had a change of heart.
Olaiya Igwe explained that his decision was influenced by an unfortunate experience he had just gone through. Prior to the wedding, he had traveled to Ibadan, Oyo State, where his newly purchased car was stolen by robbers.
The vehicle was later recovered, but the ordeal left him deeply shaken. Fearing that something similar could happen again, he began to reconsider his promise to Tope Alabi.
As doubts crept in, he decided to avoid the situation entirely. A day before the wedding, he stopped answering Tope Alabi’s calls and refused to hand over the car as promised. This last-minute decision meant that the couple had to make alternative arrangements for their transportation.
Despite the passage of time, Olaiya Igwe admitted that the guilt of disappointing Tope Alabi has stayed with him. He acknowledged that she has since become highly successful, with multiple luxury cars that far exceed what he could have offered her at the time.
In his words: “Tope Alabi informed me about her wedding, and I just bought a car ‘V boot’ at that time. I went to Ibadan in Oyo State to show one of my films, and my car was stolen from me by robbers but it was later recovered the following day. When I returned from Ibadan, Tope Alabi came to my house in Abeokuta and said big brother please we want to use your car for our wedding and I said no problem. But after she left, I had a second thought that what if armed robbers snatched the car from them. I stopped picking her calls a day before the wedding. I didn’t give her the car.”