The Rivers State chapter of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) has again declared that hard time awaits movie producers caught extorting money or other pecuniary inducements from actors in the guise of having them on the screen.
The Chairman of Rivers AGN Task Force on enforcement of ethical standards, Mr. Biokpo West disclosed this in a chat with National Network in Port Harcourt on Monday.
West said the action became necessary as the Guild had been inundated with reports of inducements and sexual harassment on hapless actors by movie producers, most of whom, he said, were not even registered members of the Guild.
“The duty of this Task Force is to monitor every movie production in Rivers State and ensure that actors are not fleeced. Actors are not supposed to pay Producers a dime, in fact, it is supposed to be the other way round: producers are the ones who ought to pay actors to have them on set”, West said.
He went on: “You can’t expect a turtle-car to carry a caterpillar. It is the caterpillar that should carry the turtle-car”.
He said it is a wrong trend for producers to request actors to buy an audition form at the end of which they are further requested to pay a camp fee ranging from N20, 000 to N40, 000 ‘camp fee’.
Mr. West, who has played lead roles in movies like Liquid Black Gold (he played Sekibo); Maiden of Destruction (where he played Nkoli) and Krakraye (he played Igonikon) amongst others, said the Task Force had since he came on board as Chairman, arrested over five persons over cases of extortion and sexual molestation on actors.
“Our constrain had been that since we cannot take the laws into our hands, we hand them over to the police but sadly none had been sent to jail”, he said.
According to the Kalabari-born actor, the police in most cases get compromised while in other cases, the actors on whose behalf they seek justice, for fear of what the producers would do to them afterwards, would refuse to cooperate with the law enforcement officers by denying the accusations against the producers.
On allegations of a certain producer who had been severally accused of engaging in the unwholesome act every time he goes to his Omagwa location, the Taskforce Chairman said the case had since been reported to the police at Isiokpo.
“I have advised the young man to quit such petty activities as it did not befit the person of his standing in the Nigerian movie industry. I have told him that taking the short cut will not help him rise to the zenith of his career. It is even more worrisome to think that he takes illegal short cuts. It he takes legal short cuts, it will be understandable”, West said, adding that the Guild had struck a synergy with the law enforcement agencies to arrest and prosecute erring members who indulge in such inappropriate behaviours.
