Emeka Rollas, President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), has clarified why the guild has not pursued legal action against producer Adanma Luke following the tragic death of actor Junior Pope.
The accident, which occurred in April 2024, involved a boat mishap on the River Niger in Asaba, Delta State, resulting in the deaths of Junior Pope and four other crew members while en route to a film set for Adanma Luke’s movie, The Other Side of Life.
After the tragedy, AGN suspended Adanma Luke. However, in a recent interview on Arise TV, Emeka Rollas explained that the guild had no grounds to take legal action because Junior Pope was not a dues-paying member of AGN. He also emphasized that, based on Junior Pope’s contract with the producer, only his immediate family or wife holds the legal right to pursue any legal claims.
In the interview, Rollas also discussed his plans to restructure the guild moving forward.
His words …
“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 the video below …