Nollywood actress Mercy Johnson Okojie has accused cooking oil brand Power Oil of using her image in adverts four years after her contract with the company ended.
Okojie made the claim in an Instagram post on Monday, 28 September 2026. She said she saw a Power Oil billboard with her face at Nana Plaza, Wuse 2, Abuja. She also said the company shows her image on buses and other adverts.
According to her, Power Oil has not paid her since the contract ended and has not consulted her about the adverts.
In the video, she asked whether the company would treat an artist from India the same way. “Can you do this to an Indian artist?” she asked. She asked Power Oil to check its direct messages and respond to her team.
Mercy Johnson also asked her followers to film any Power Oil advert that carries her image. She told them to state the date, time, and location in the video. By Tuesday morning, the post had received 13,899 likes and 510 comments.
Commenters named places where they had seen the adverts. One said the ads fill the relief market area in Onitsha. Another said a billboard stands in Ilasan, Lekki, Lagos. Others pointed to Enugu. Mercy Johnson replied to several of them and asked for videos.
One commenter said ambassador contracts run for a fixed period, and a brand must stop using the ambassador’s image or renew the deal when the term ends. Mercy replied that this was “absolutely correct.” Another commenter advised her to check her contract, because some agreements allow use of the image after the term. A third said she should have raised the issue privately, since she once worked closely with the brand.
However, Power Oil has not publicly responded, and neither side has published the start date, end date or terms of the contract.
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Power Oil sponsored the fourth season of Okojie’s cooking show, Mercy’s Menu, which began on 3 March 2024 on ROK on DStv and GOtv. It is unclear whether that sponsorship was part of the contract she says has ended.
Mercy Johnson currently works with other brands. In March 2026, Girls Tag named her and her daughter, Purity Okojie, as brand ambassadors for its period care pack.
