By Ayo Onikoyi

The producer of a new Nollywood film titled “Minee”, Kezy Kome currently making waves in cinemas across the nation has lashed out at girls involving themselves in runs, hookups and keeping sugar daddies that what they are doing is an excuse for prostitution. Kome, who was chatting with Potpourri on the motivation behind the film, Minee said most girls who fall victims of organ harvesting are into prostitution, and as such people tend to have no clue what happened to them when they go missing.

“Because things are hard many girls have turned to prostitution, in the name of hookups, sugar daddies and runs. There are other choices. Prostitution can only lead to destruction. It demeans you as a woman. You are worth more than what is between your legs.

” You are a human being, a product of power, you have the strength to be anything, don’t let people take away that dignity from you. That’s why Minee had to bring a searchlight on prostitution. Most girls that were killed in Minee were girls into prostitution, those who have sugar daddies and all. Girls were missing and no one knew what happened to them. That is one of the negative sides of prostitution. When you go missing nobody knows what happened to you, she narrated.

Kome explained that the movie, Minee is centered on organ harvesting,  kidnappings, prostitution and drug trafficking and abuse, with a view to projecting female heroism.

“I came up with the Minee story because I wanted a female hero women can connect to. In our society, women don’t know their worth. We feel like we were born to serve men, to be at their beck and call. We don’t know our strength, our prowess. That was the motivation for me to come up with Minee. I wanted to display the fact that a woman can be anything, that there are no limitations to what a woman can do. That, there’s no job a woman cannot do. Nobody should be able to tell you what or not you can do as a woman. To be honest, the only thing I had in mind was female heroism, women doing the unthinkable, she said.

Kome also explained that the plot of the film was basically about organ harvesting, while highlighting other ills in the society associated with it. She said crime is rising at an alarming rate that somebody has to do something about it.

She told Potpourri, ” Right now in the Nigerian society, organ harvesting has become a trend, that I wonder sometimes, how did we get here. We were once a country of sanity with high moral values but that has disappeared.

“Boyfriends killing their girlfriends, selling their body parts, and all. Each time you go to social media you get to read of all horrific crimes against humanity perpetrated by friends among friends or within the family members. Organ harvesting is something we need to address in this country because it is getting out of hand.

“Because of the demand for organs in the black market people do not mind who they hurt in the process, it is just to get their hands on their organs at any cost. It is not right. Sadly, it is not being talked about, they are not enlightening the people enough. Yes, I understand Nigeria is hard, corruption is at the highest peak and people are struggling to survive, and to survive people are doing all sorts of despicable things.

“Something has to be done, if not, it’s going to get worse. Watching Minee will tell you how many people get missing. We hear of ‘missing persons’ but for all you know the person may be dead. There are friends you don’t hear from anymore and if you don’t know they are probably dead. Before they only kidnap for money but now they keep people to harvest their organs for sale. The message in Minee is the reality of society today. Some people don’t know how to deal with trauma. When something happens to them they choose a path to hide the pain, and take solace in drug abuse.

“And the moment you get sucked into drugs, you can sell anything you own. They will do anything for a fix. That’s what was portrayed by Minee’s sister in the movie . She would do anything for a fix because she was just so addicted to drugs. Even in the streets of Lagos people now openly hawk drugs. I had a personal experience of this. We need to sensitise, enlighten and educate people. They say the youths are the leaders of tomorrow but it appears the youths are even worse than the leaders we are blaming.”

Kome is particularly joyous about the cast and crew of the movie, describing them as the “best of Nollywood”.

“Minee, the movie has the best cast imaginable. The cast is actually an assemblage of the best of Nollywood. Starting from Daniel Etim, he’s one of the nicest and sweetest persons you can work with. He’s good at what he does. He knows his onions. He is a co-lead actor in the movie. At one point, the movie was all about Minee and Malik played by Etim.

Talking about Ireti, she’s a force of nature. It was the privilege of my life to work beside her. I have never seen a woman so good at her job, within minutes she gets into character, learns her lines and boom, she delivers, seamlessly. In fact she inspired me as I followed her footsteps.

Segun Arinze needs no introduction, he’s a veteran at the game. He was so down to earth, he set the set alight with life.

Kelvin Ikeduba, and the formidable Ayo Adesanya, the cast was awesome. Everybody brought their A-game to bear on the movie and it was marvelous the result we achieved. You need to see the movie to understand what I’m saying.

The crew too was awesome. They were another set of people, so dedicated and great .

I want to talk about the director and producer, Richard Omos Iboye, it was the first time I was working with him, I have never seen a man so patient and understanding. He was patient with everybody. No matter what you do, he never gets angry and that brings out the best in everybody,”

Minee stars Kezy Kome, Daniel Etim Effiong, Bayray Nwisu, Segun Arinze, Ireti Doyle, Ayo Adesanya, Monica Friday, Anthony Monjaro and a host of others.