Seun Oloketuyi, the founder of the Best of Nollywood (BON) Awards, has advised actors to desist from filming and sharing videos of their dead colleagues on social media.
Oloketuyi’s admonishment follows the death of Junior Pope, a Nollywood actor, and several crew members on April 10.
Their boat capsized in the River Niger near Asaba, Delta state, as they journeyed to a movie location.
Jerry Amilo, the actor, shared a video of the late actor on his Facebook page, attracting a chorus of condemnation from other Nollywood stars including Prince Eke.
In a statement on Monday, Oloketuyi lamented the rate at which some actors get “more engrossed in making live videos than helping their dead colleagues”.
He also called on the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) to establish clear safety guidelines for film productions.
Oloketuyi urged for proactive measures by the AGN and the Association of Movie Producers (AMP) to ensure the safety of creatives.
“It is sad and still very hard to refer to Jnr Pope and others who lost their life in the ill-fated boat ride as deceased. Jnr Pope was full of life and hardworking, as I’m sure were those who died with him,” the statement reads.
“I think AGN and AMP need to be proactive and ask serious, salient questions going forward.
“Do Nollywood productions, especially those with high-level risks like shooting late at night, have standard safety procedures?
“Can we organise crash programmes of safety procedures when incidents like these take place so that people know what to do? Can the guilds have safety experts in its executives to advise accordingly?
“Finally, it is time our actors learn to use social media. Accidents happen everywhere but you won’t see a lawyer do a live video of such events or post pictures of their colleagues’ corpses.
“It is becoming crazy. In fact, it looked like some were more engrossed in making live videos than helping. RIP to the dead practitioners.”
On April 11, AGN suspended all movies involving riverine locations.
The guild set up a committee to improve the safety of its members.
Copyright 2024 TheCable. All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from TheCable.
Follow us on twitter @Thecablestyle