2009 witnessed lots of rumors, scandals and ugly incidents in the entertainment industry.
The ugly
Many a star lost their lives to the cold hands of death.
Omoladun Kenkelewu: Omoladun, the late wife of Baba Suwe died of hypertension related ailment in August. Her death was one too many for a lot of people to bear.
Remi Abiola: One of the wives of the late politician,( M.K.O Abiola) Remi Abiola died in United States and the association was almost ridiculed when it could not bring her corpse back home. Luckily help came from other quarters and she was brought back home in one piece. It was five days after her burial that Omoladun passed away.
Bisi Ogunde also died on a film location at Itaegbe-Owode, near Idiroko, Ota, Ogun state. She had allegedly complained of dizziness to her colleagues when she arrived at the film location. She was advised to take a rest. But she insisted on shooting few scenes from her role. She later slumped on set possibly due to fatigue and died on the spot.
Mojisola Abeke Ogunsola aka Iya Alakara, passed on after a brief illness in Ibadan, on the 23rd of July 2009. She was one of the wives of another late movie veteran, Ishola Ogunsola aka Isho Pepper.
The bad
Kidnapping of comic Nkem Owoh was one of the bad things for Nollywood. Nkem Owoh was kidnapped on his way to Port Harcourt from Enugu . He spent about two days with kidnappers before he was reportedly released after the payment of about N1 million ransom.
Kidnapping of Pete Edochie: The veteran actor who has a reputation that is as hard as rock was kidnapped in August and there was nothing he could do about it. He was later released after payment of a ransom. His kidnapping was the beginning of wisdom for many A-list celebrities as they are now extra careful in the eastern states.
Crisis in AGN
The drama at Actors Guild of Nigeria is reminiscent of what is going on in the political circle in Nigeria . Two actors, Emeka Ike and Segun Arinze are laying claim to the presidency of the association and the feud is getting messier by the day. Some artistes are on Segun’s side while many are also on Emeka’s side. The feud no doubt has polarized the association and we can tell you for free that not many people take them serious anymore.
Rumors of break-ups
Oge Okoye’s marriage: Oge Okoye’s marriage was said to have packed up and her Holland based husband is said to be out of the picture.
It later turned out to be rumor according to Oge, though her husband has not made a categorical statement.
Ini Edo: her marriage made the news and gave the magazines a field day but not long afterwards, news filtered into town that her marriage was on the verge of breaking. She hopped on the next flight and went to Houston in United States to meet her man in order to douse the tension. The strategy proved effective as the rumor mongers calmed down but many are still poking noses and expecting to hear the worse.
Femi Adebayo’s broken home
Femi’s broken home was one of the bad news in the course of the year. Many alleged that it was his relationship with Funke that broke his home, but revelations have since emerged that the marriage was already under a lot of pressure before the rumor.
Timaya
He made the headline for reasons other than his music. First he got a bashing from Nico Graphity, put his hip hop world award plaque on his crotch in public and later went to fight Empress Njamah in a church when their love affair went sour. Of course he got a beating of his life and his reputation and goodwill flew out of the window.
Sikiratu Sindodo
She started the year as handbag of motor park lord, MC Oluomo in Oshodi. She lost out to manipulative play of some of her colleagues and eneded the year in police custody when her jeep was said to have crushed a toddler to death unknowingly. For her it was a bad year.
