We Must Pray Against The Devil’s Plan For Nigerian Actors To Keep Dying On Set – Emeka Rollas

President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Emeka Rollas has come out to say that the 4 Nigerians who were involved in the recent tragic on-set incident in Owerri were not registered members of the Guild. Recall that just last week, news broke that 4 Nollywood actors were rushed to the Federal University Teaching Hospital in Owerri after reportedly losing consciousness on a movie set, and fans have been reacting.

According to him while he sympathizes with the family members of those who died, the victims have no affiliation with the AGN, therefore they should not be addressed as members.

He added that the devil is currently trying his hardest to ensure the pattern of deaths on set continues, so the entire industry must pray against such evil occurrence.

His words, “They are not members of the Actors Guild of Nigeria but this points to two things: the devil still wants this pattern of mass death repeated on an annual basis.

If not for God the death toll in Owerri could have been four persons. Exactly the same number last year in Asaba. Please let all actors and indeed Nollywood prepare for this year’s prayer outing with pastor Jerry Eze.”

On actors failing to join AGN, “We have repeatedly warned that actors must join the Guild to practice in Nollywood. Barely a week after the memorial service of our member, late Junior Pope, tragedy struck in Owerri involving two promising young actors.

We cannot continue like this. Everywhere in the country, people just wake up and equip themselves with cameras, and they have become Nollywood.

This is a bad trend. These people camp themselves in an unhealthy, unverified environment, making content. Content creators have to be licensed.”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.