Afrobeat Musician Rema Accused of Using Police to Evade Payment for Contracted Work

Afrobeat musician Divine Ikubor, popularly known as Rema, has been accused of using the Nigeria Police Force to harass and detain Amaka Obasi, a contractor who claims he failed to pay her for work she carried out under contract.

According to the allegations made by Amaka and sources close to her, the sequence of events revealed that Amaka was contracted to renovate Rema’s new house, after having previously done work on his mother’s house in Benin and his personal residence.

The agreement later expanded to include additional services: construction of a music studio and an upgraded water system management, which were not part of their original contract.

When it was time for payment, Amaka says Rema allegedly delayed or avoided payment, and then tricked her into attending a meeting with his lawyers. During that meeting, she was arrested over the weekend by personnel from the CID Alagbon division, while a bail of over ₦1 million was said to have been paid.

She has reportedly been arrested and detained three times throughout the project. She remains in detention as of the latest updates.

A viral video seen by Newsleverage showed when she was being harassed by alleged operatives of the Nigeria Police. On Tuesday, she appeared before the Magistrate Court in Ikoyi and remanded till October 3, 2025.

Alerting the public on the incident, @software_artist, a friend of Amaka, wrote extensively on the dispute.

URGENT!! We need your help!!

Rema (@heisrema) is using the Nigeria Police Force to harass and detain Amaka Obasi (@amaka_babyy) all because she asked for payment on the project he commissioned her to do.

Rema and Amaka had an initial contract to renovate their new house. Now it’s time to pay for the services, and he has involved the police Force CID Alagbon, by tricking her to come for a meeting and arresting her over the weekend, where she had to pay over 1 million naira as bail.

Before then, they had worked twice on his mother’s house in Benin and his personal house.

He then commissioned her to build a music studio for him and an improved water system management which was not part of their initial agreement.

Now it’s time to pay for the services, and he has involved the police Force CID Alagbon, by tricking her to come for a meeting and arresting her over the weekend, where she had to pay over 1 million naira as bail.

The Police asked her to turn off her phone since last week so that Rema would think she’s still in custody.

She was arrested and detained yesterday after honouring an invitation from the Police with her lawyer. Throughout the course of this project, he has harassed and arrested her with the police 3 times, and now she’s currently in detention.

He has now involved his mother to write a cooked-up petition that the work Amaka did for her in 2023 was substandard. The same work that was done and completed before Rema gave her a new contract in 2024.

All this just to avoid paying the money he owes. We have all the evidence to back this up.

Rema @heisrema tricked Amaka @amaka_babyy to come for a meeting with his lawyers to resolve any issues, and when she came, he summoned his personal police officers and State CID Alagbon to arrest her and keep her in detention over the weekend.

She is being remanded as we speak!!