Since the news broke about two weeks ago, both parties have kept mum
over the issue, thus leading to wild speculations. A version has 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, Entertainment Gist can authoritatively reveal to you
that the relationship between D’banj and Bankulli began to go sour
towards the end of last year, based on accusations that D’banj is very
insensitive and nonchalant. Sources in D’banj’s camp who spoke with
Entertainment Gist 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 travelled to Paris, France
few days after Koko Concert, and baba (D’banj) was aware, but it’s not
certain 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 by Entertainment Gist, Bankulli who was unreachable for
days and later was not taking calls on his mobile, declined to comment
on the issue. All he said was, “D’banj didn’t fire me, I just decided to
move on”. 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.
For those who don’t know, D’banj and Bankulli have not seen eye to eye
this year, their friendship however dates back to over 10 years ago when
Bankuli worked with R70 under DJ Abass and Ayo Shonaiya to provide
management and agency support.
Recall that UK big boy Ayo Shonaiya was hugely instrumental in
D’banj’s break and rise to stardom in Nigeria. All this while, Bankulli
was always in the background as the Nigerian representative for R70 at a
time when the UK-based company was a major link between the Nigerian
music industry and the United Kingdom. “Till date Bankulli still
addresses Ayo Shonaiya as his boss. Although his relationship with
D’Banj became prominent following the Mo’Hits break up last year, both
D’banj and Bankulli have always been good friends. 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 dbanj and db record after don jazzy part ways with dbanj. 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 mainframes, and few
others 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 controversial
Source : Jagida