You are jokers —  Ike

Benjamin NJOKU

The chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of Actors Guild of Nigeria, Ifeanyi Dike within the week insisted that the recent ban placed on actor Emeka Ike by the leadership of the guild stays until, he(Emeka) apologises to the guild.

Dike who’s the chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of AGN, last week announced the decision of the leadership of AGN to ban Emeka Ike for what they called  his “gross misconduct and anti-guild activities.”

In a telephone conversation with HVP, Dike said for the ban to be lifted, Emeka must apologise to the Guild, stressing that ‘there is need for him to show remorse for his anti-guild activities.”

According to him, “the actors in Nigeria have unanimously decided to suspend Emeka Ike indefinitely for anti-guild activities. We have also stripped him as the Vice President, South East of the guild. Let me use this medium to state that the move to suspend him was not made by the Board of Trustees, but AGN members who have been monitoring his anti-guild activities for some time now.”

“He has been disturbing the peace of this guild. So right now, anybody who deals with him on behalf of AGN is doing so at his or her own peril.” Dike said in a statement.

Dike claimed that he and other members of the BOT have been receiving life threatening text messages from unknown persons.

But reacting to his ban, Emeka warned that nobody has the moral right to ban him as far as the movie industry is concerned in Nigeria. He said he will stop at nothing to ensure that the bigwigs in the Guild are brought to book.

“They are big jokers. Ban who? The BOT’s tenure has expired since 2008, and they have no power to ban me. They only want to make themselves relevant to the industry because they have no jobs to do. Are they producers or actors? Most of them are coming to beg me.”

“I’m sending them to jail soonest because I will not make things easy for anybody. Already I have filed a case against them in court. They are the ones that will be banned, not me. I’m working and I don’t want to be  distracted.” Emeka fumed.

The prolonged crisis between the Board of Trustees and Emeka Ike’s faction of AGN started last year when the former decided to form a government of national unity that would be headed by Segun Arinze.Not satisfied with the decision, which they claimed was unpopular, a faction of the guild headed by the then Interim National President, Kanayo. O. Kanayo, went ahead to conduct an election which produced Emeka Ike as President. But the BOT maintained its decision that Segun Arinze will remain their recognised National President.

HVP gathered that at the moment,  Emeka Ike’s fraction have taken full control of AGN’s chapters in the eastern states.