A friendship that once brought together beauty entrepreneurs Adeola “Diiadem” Adeyemi and Dabota Lawson has turned into a public dispute, with both Real Housewives of Lagos stars trading accusations over business opportunities, money, bloggers and unresolved issues from their relationship.
The two women became close through Nigeria’s beauty industry before eventually joining the cast of the third season of The Real Housewives of Lagos. Their friendship was previously visible on social media, where they often appeared together and promoted one another’s businesses.
However, their relationship reportedly began to deteriorate in recent weeks. The situation became more noticeable after the pair stopped following each other on social media, with reports suggesting that jealousy may have contributed to the fallout.
Neither woman initially confirmed the reason for the breakdown. The dispute later became public when Diiadem took to Snapchat on Thursday to address what she described as online attacks and smear campaigns against her.
Diiadem accuses Dabota
In a series of Snapchat posts, Diiadem accused Dabota of being connected to information about her being circulated by bloggers.
She also revisited a ₦5 million transfer that had previously been associated with Dabota’s birthday gesture towards her. Diiadem said she initially shared the alert publicly but was later told the money was part of a “girls game” and needed to be returned.
According to her, she returned the money immediately.
Diiadem also accused Dabota of sharing information about her with bloggers and urged her former friend to stop discussing her publicly.
The beauty entrepreneur further claimed that using bloggers against people was a pattern whenever Dabota had disagreements with others.
The dispute became more emotional for Diiadem after an image of her daughter appeared on a blog.
She said seeing her daughter’s picture published left her feeling like a failed parent and made the situation particularly painful.
Diiadem concluded her posts by saying she did not want to be dragged into further controversy and simply wanted to be left alone.
Dabota responds
Dabota later responded to the allegations, challenging Diiadem to identify exactly what she had done to cause the friendship to collapse.
She pointed to a business funding opportunity as one possible source of tension, explaining that she had secured funding from a finance company that Diiadem had also approached but did not complete the required process with.
Dabota also mentioned the renovation and rebranding of her store and a new product or innovation she said she had personally shown Diiadem after receiving the first samples.
She questioned why those developments should have created resentment between them.
Dabota also rejected parts of Diiadem’s claims relating to bloggers and her previous disagreement with Sophia Momodu.
She said her position regarding Momodu had already been made publicly during The Real Housewives of Lagos, insisting that she addressed the matter directly rather than relying on bloggers.
Dabota then challenged Diiadem to provide evidence supporting the allegations she had made against her.
Money enters the dispute
Financial dealings between the former friends also featured prominently in the exchange.
Diiadem claimed that she once borrowed ₦1 million from Dabota during a meeting because she could not complete a transfer at the time.
She said she later repaid the money with ₦1.5 million and added extra money so Dabota could purchase gifts for her daughter.
Diiadem also questioned Dabota’s account of money she allegedly sprayed at one of her parties, suggesting that there was disagreement over what happened to the money afterwards.
The dispute later returned to business, with Diiadem addressing a $10,000 funding opportunity and an issue involving content creator Jarvis.
On the Jarvis matter, Diiadem claimed Dabota had wanted to participate in the project but became upset after she was not invited.
She also referred to comments concerning the exposure another creator received through the project and suggested that Dabota had considered how a similar opportunity could benefit her and her daughter.
Diiadem additionally responded to Dabota’s references to a former relationship, although she did not need to disclose further personal details for the wider disagreement to become clear.
What caused the friendship to collapse?
The public exchange suggests that the disagreement did not stem from one isolated incident. Instead, the two women appear to have accumulated several unresolved issues involving friendship, business, money and their respective public images.
Diiadem has repeatedly asked Dabota to stop discussing her, while Dabota has challenged her to clearly explain the actions she believes caused the breakdown.
The dispute has now moved beyond the two women, with screenshots of their Snapchat posts spreading across social media and entertainment blogs.
Their fallout has attracted particular attention because of their connection through The Real Housewives of Lagos, where both joined the cast for its third season.
For now, Diiadem and Dabota have offered competing accounts of how their relationship deteriorated, leaving fans to debate what ultimately brought an apparently close friendship to an end.