The president of the Actors Guild of Nigeria has called for mass prayers and increased unionisation after the death of two actors in Owerri, the capital city of Imo State.
Posting on Instagram, Emeka Rollas advocated spiritual intervention and better workplace regulation to try to prevent future tragedies after the two men, who have not yet been named, died on Friday.
“So sad some Actors who are not members of the Actors Guild lost their lives while filming,” ran the message on his main post. “We have repeatedly warned that actors must join the guild to practice in Nollywood.”
In a caption alongside, Rollas reflected that the deaths had occurred “barely a week after the [1 year] memorial service” of Junior Pope, one of the country’s most influential actors and producers.
Pope, 39, died on 10 April 2024 alongside three crew members in a boat accident on the River Niger, while travelling to Asaba to shoot a new film.
Rollas concluded from the apparently unrelated events that “the devil still wants this pattern of mass death repeated on an annual basis”.
Details of the deaths last weekend remain unclear but reports suggest the two actors died at a house party given by a director, which left two others hospitalised. The director and three other people present were later arrested.
A spokesperson for the Imo State Police Command, Henry Okoye, confirmed the incident and said an investigation into the cause of the deaths had begun. “The command is aware of the unfortunate incident of unnatural death,” he said. “I can confirm that two people were pronounced dead while two were hospitalised.”
In his Instagram post, Rollas credited God with the death toll in Owerri not being four – the same number, he said, as “last year in Asaba”.
He continued by saying that he had organised a prayer programme before concluding with a caution to those who might sign up to work on productions without union representation.
“This is a bad trend. These people camp themselves in an unhealthy, unverified environment making content,” wrote Rollas. “Content creators have to be licensed.
RIP 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭”
Rollas has served as AGN president since 2017. In a 2019 speech, he said his organisation had more than two million registered members across 36 states and is the largest actors’ association in Africa.
