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Claim: In a new interview with Agbaletu Uncensored, actor Olanrewaju Omiyinka, better known as Baba Ijesha, denied being a paedophile and suggested he was brought down by liars and opponents. 

He also said he had never been to the house where the viral video of him was recorded, that he once lived in actor Adebayo Salami’s house with many girl children and nothing happened, and that he trained actress Iyabo Ojo. A clip of the interview, shared on X by Oyindamola (@dammiedammie35) with a caption in quotation marks, drew 339,000 views.

Verdict: False! Baba Ijesha’s denial leaves out that a Lagos High Court convicted him in 2022 of sexual assault and indecent treatment of a child, and that the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction for the 2021 offence. 

His claim that he was set up was argued at trial and did not succeed. His statement that he has never been to the house where the footage was recorded is contradicted by the court record and by his own lawyers’ arguments at trial. NFM found no evidence that he lived in Salami’s house or trained actress Iyabo Ojo, and reported figures on Salami’s children do not support his claim that most of them are women. 

Full Text

Naija News reported on Nov. 8, 2026, that Baba Ijesha insisted in an interview with Agbaletu Uncensored that he is not a paedophile and that people conspired against him. On or about the same day, an X user, Oyindamola (@dammiedammie35), posted a video of the interview with this caption :

“I’m not a paedophile; they lied and ganged up against me to send me to prison. I once lived inside Actor Adebayo Salami’s house with a lot of girl children, and such never happened. Iyabo Ojo is my product; I taught her how to act in movies,” Baba Ijesha said in a new interview.

When Naija Feminists Media (NFM) reviewed the post, archived here, on Nov. 9, 2026, it had 339,000 views, 509 reposts, 3,400 likes and 145 replies.

The replies NFM reviewed were divided. Dan Okoro (@dan_7777) wrote that Baba Ijesha appeared before a High Court judge and three Court of Appeal justices and couldn’t convince any of them. 

SK (@sk_skiiiiii), in apparent agreement with Baba Ijesha, wrote that “the video was a set-up” and that he “was never a pedophile” 

Voice of the Voiceless (@gclassikhome), endorsing his innocence, commented that the footage showed a “mere attempt” and that he was targeted by someone he had issues with. 

MonkeleDesign (@Monkele77) wrote that he molested the girl when she was 17 and did the same thing seven years later, and that in the evidence video he kissed her and loosened his trouser belt. 

Given the reach of the interview clip and the claims in its replies about a set-up and the minor’s age, NFM decided to verify what Baba Ijesha said.

NFM Checks

We reviewed the video attached to the post and a transcript of its audio. In the transcribed portion translated from Yoruba, Baba Ijesha says he was told to be careful of liars and opponents to avoid problems and prison sentences. During the interview, he made three claims:

1. When asked by the interviewer if he is a paedophile, he claims he is not.

“I learnt the meaning of the word only after the case,” Baba Ijesha claims, saying he had

 never been to the house the interviewer mentions.

2. In another part of the video, he claimed he lived with Adebayo Salami. “Most of his children and women and we all slept in the same sitting room during my stay,” he added. 

3. He also claimed that he trained actress Iyabo Ojo: “Iyabo Ojo is my product; I taught her this theatre work,” he said. 

Claim 1 on Baba Ijesha Denying Paedophilia

NFM Checks revealed that Lagos Attorney-General Lawal Pedro (SAN) confirmed that Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Lagos State High Court convicted Baba Ijesha on July 14, 2022, of sexual assault and indecent treatment of a child over offences committed in 2021. The 2021 conviction concerned a 14-year-old. 

The charges were framed as sexual assault and indecent treatment of a child, not as “paedophilia,” but the conviction is for sexual offences against a minor, and his denial does not mention it. 

Paedophilia is a clinical term. The World Health Organization’s ICD-11 describes paedophilic disorder as a sustained, intense pattern of sexual arousal involving pre-pubertal children. Baba Ijesha was not tried for “paedophilia” as a clinical diagnosis. The court convicted him of sexual assault and indecent treatment of a 14-year-old. That is a sexual offence against a child, which is the conduct most people mean when they use the word.  

In everyday use, though, the word covers the sexual abuse of children generally.

Claim 2: On  Baba Ijesha Claiming Set-Up and Living in Adebayo Salami’s House

During Baba Ijesha’s court proceeding, his claim was examined and dismissed by the court. 

A defence expert said one recording was tampered with during editing, but under cross-examination, he admitted the footage could not have been manipulated at the time of recording. The judge also ruled his confessional statement to police admissible after finding no evidence that he was tortured, according to the 21st Century Chronicle. Baba Ijesha told the court he was acting a script in the video.

The set-up claim is therefore his defence at trial and in the interview, not a finding. The courts that heard the evidence convicted him, and the Court of Appeal upheld the 2021 conviction.

In addition, court records contradict his claim that he has never been to the house where the video recording was made. His lawyers argued at trial that he did not go to the complainant’s house uninvited, which the court found was contradicted by the evidence.

In a March 2026 interview with Yinka Ayefele, he said he was lured with food and money before the incident that led to his jail term. 

According to reports, Baba Ijesha’s lawyers raised that he was set up at trial. They argued that the CCTV footage was illegally obtained, was not tendered by its maker, and had been tampered with. The court admitted the footage, and a recording made in April 2021, showing him and the minor in the minor’s home, was played in court. 

Further, the Court of Appeal in Lagos, on June 28, 2024, set aside charges tied to alleged offences in 2013 and 2014 but upheld the conviction and sentence for the 2021 sexual assault. Attorney-General Lawal said the Supreme Court struck out his appeal on May 29, 2025, as incompetent, and dismissed an application for leave to file a fresh appeal on Oct. 9, 2025.

Attorney-General Lawal also emphasised that Baba Ijesha was released strictly because he completed his jail term, not because he was cleared. 

Reports in November 2025 that an appeal court had overturned the conviction circulated after his release. TVC checked with a source at the court and found no such sitting. The seven-year-old he mentioned matches a different part of the case. The prosecution’s first witness testified that abuse began in 2013, when the minor was seven. Those 2013 and 2014 charges are the ones the Court of Appeal set aside. That ruling did not disturb the 2021 conviction of Baba Ijesha for sexual assault of a minor. 

Additionally, NFM found no report, statement from Salami or comment from his family confirming that Baba Ijesha lived in the household. Reports on Salami’s family give 18 children, nine sons and nine daughters. That is an even split, so his claim that most of them are women is not supported. Even if he lived there, the claim that no incident occurred in that household does not address the 2021 incident the court ruled on.

Claim 3 on Baba Ijesha Training Iyabo Ojo

The claim about Iyabo Ojo being his product is also unsupported by evidence. Published profiles say Ojo acted in her secondary school drama group and began her professional career in 1998, when she registered with the Actors Guild of Nigeria. 

NFM found none that credit Baba Ijesha with training her. Iyabo has said her relationship with him was strictly professional and described him as a senior colleague. He made a similar “product” remark earlier in 2026 in his interview with Biola Adebayo, as Premium Times reported.

Conclusion

In the interview, Baba Ijesha denies being a paedophile and says he was set up, contradicting a High Court conviction of him for sexual assault and indecent treatment of a child. His set-up claim was argued at trial and did not succeed.  The Court of Appeal also upheld the 2021 conviction for child sexual assault.

His statement that he has never been to the house is contradicted by the court record. NFM found no evidence for his claims about living in Salami’s house or training Ojo, and the figures on Salami’s children do not support what he said. Baba Ijesha’s claims are therefore false. 

The X post that circulated the clip adds to the minimisation of Baba Ijesha’s offence by merging separate remarks into one quote and including words he is not heard saying in the transcribed portion.