Mr Ibu, who was ill in the past weeks and received treatment at Zenith Medical and Kidney Centre Abuja, has fully recovered and was discharged from the hospital. He has currently returned to his job, acting.

Contrary to reports that the much-loved comic actor was poisoned at an entertainment event in Abuja, Mr Ibu said he was poisoned during his numerous trips to his country home in Nkanu West, Enugu State.

He said the effects weighed him down when he returned to his base in Abuja.

He was full of life and in his elements as his remarks elicited laughter at the heart of a serious conversation during his interview with our correspondent.

Speaking about how he was poisoned, Mr Ibu said, “I was poisoned, but not at an entertainment event in Abuja. I was poisoned in my home town, and then I journeyed to Abuja, where the poison affected me and grounded me. At a point, I almost gave up, but God said. No, you are not going to give up. And here I am. I have been discharged”.

Setting the records straight, Mr Ibu explained how he battled what he described as an unknown ailment.

He said: “It’s a long story because the sickness didn’t start today, all these while we’ve been running around, going from here to there, from one diagnosis to another, mentioned different names of sicknesses, I was even tired of the results, how could all these aliments be in one person’s body.”

First attempt

This is not the first time Mr Ibu’s ‘kinsmen’ have reportedly attempted to kill him. In 2020, Mr Ibu raised the alarm about how his kinsmen paid his domestic staff to poison him because of his successful career.

In an interview with Nigezitv, Mr Ibu recounted how he was kidnapped and poisoned at an event in Nnewi. He also noted that his protruding stomach was a result of the poison.

Political entanglement

In November 2021, Mr Ibu, alongside his colleagues like Foluke Daramola, Harry Anyanwu, and Benedict Johnson, drummed support for Bola Tinubu’s presidential ambition.

Although the APC party stalwart was yet to declare his ambition at the time officially, Mr Ibu, an ardent supporter of former vice president Atiku Abubakar in 2019 and his colleagues drummed support for him nonetheless.

The occasion was a meeting themed ‘South West Stands with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’ where the actors unanimously argued that Tinubu had impacted the people.

Several backlashes greeted a viral video clip from the proceedings from Nigerians who faulted the actors’ partisan alliances.