Emeka Rollas, the president of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, AGN, has given reason for his failure to sue actress Adanma Luke over the death of late actor, Junior Pope.
DAILY POST reports that the late actor died alongside four crew members on April 10 2024, after their boat capsized in the River Niger in Asaba, Delta State, while on their way to movie location.
Actress Adanma Luke is the producer of the ill-fated film, ‘The Other Side of Life’, in which Junior Pope starred.
Following the tragic incident, the AGN suspended Adanma.
However, giving an update on the case, the AGN president, Emeka Rollas stated that it became impossible for the guild to sue the movie producer because Junior Pope wasn’t a due paying member.
Also reviewing the contract that the late actor signed with the producer, Rollas explained that only Junior Pope’s direct family or wife had the right to sue.
Speaking during his latest interview on Arise TV, Rollas’ disclosed that he is working on restructuring the guild.
“Update on Junior Pope, you know I was here and I said that we are about to sue. In the course of interacting with our legal adviser, he said that from the contract that Junior Pope signed with the producer, the AGN did not have the locum to sue.He said either the direct family or the wife should sue the producer.
“Now we go back to the structure that we are talking about. Because we just came back from Los Angeles now, we are trying to change a lot of things. From the structure we are creating, tapping from the practice, we are going to begin licensing actors because we also find out that even the Junior Pope, as of the time of his death was not a due-paying member of the guild. He was just an actor who is big and has not paid dues in the last one year before his death.”
Watch him speak below:
Junior Pope didn’t pay dues — AGN on late actor’s membership [VIDEO]