Renowned Nollywood actor, Hanks Anuku, has recounted how a viral video that falsely portrayed him as mentally unstable ruined his career and caused him pain.

Recalls that a video of the movie star went viral in 2022, with Anuku dressed in tattered clothes, roaming around the streets of Asaba, and many people insinuated he was mentally unstable.

Shortly after the video surfaced online, his colleague, Shan George, debunked the claim, stating that Anuku is “not insane” as widely speculated.

Addressing the incident in an interview with Facebook content creator, Lucky Udu, Anuku revealed that the video was from a movie set.

The thespian explained that he was preparing for a role as a mentally unstable character and was getting into character by visiting the environment and meditating.

Anuku lamented the loss of friends, producers, and job opportunities, stating that the viral video left him jobless and isolated.

The actor added that he went through pain and was heartbroken, adding that those who circulated the video destroyed his image.

He said, “I was trying to get into character for a role I was going to play, a madman role. Someone who was not in his correct senses or right frame of mind.

“So I had to go naturally visit the environment on how I would play it in that same neighbourhood. I was just showing the way the director wanted me to do it, meditating and getting into character.

“I lost friends, producers no longer contacted me for jobs. I lost a lot of money, I lost jobs, and I was jobless. People did not care about me. It was God who directed my footsteps to a good soul.

“I went through pain, if you were in my shoes you would feel it. I was heartbroken for these people to do this to me.”

Catholic priest Ejike Mbaka said governors and members of the national assembly should also earn the N62,000 minimum wage proposed by the federal government.

Mbaka stated this while speaking in an interview with AIT on Saturday, reacting to the new minimum wage demand by the organised labour.

Recall that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had embarked on an indefinite strike over the federal government’s failure to meet their demand for a new minimum wage, disrupting essential services.

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But, the organized labour “relaxed” the industrial action for one week to allow negotiations with the federal government on a new minimum wage.

The federal government and the organised labour subsequently resumed negotiations on June 6 — where the new wage was proposed.

Speaking on the development, Mbaka said Salaries of members of the national assembly have been shrouded in secrecy, eliciting speculation and debate from Nigerians.

Mbaka said, “We can push these poor Nigerians to the point of rebellion. That is my fear. All of us were in Lagos that day, we couldn’t come back.

“Just like a joke the labour people entered into the airport and stopped every operation and if this happen again it might tantamount to what nobody dreams or what we dream but out of fear we cannot release to the public.

“If we decide to give labour N60,000 or N62,000, why not generalise it to the house of assembly members, senatorial members, house of representative members, and governors?

”All of them are civil servants. So, are the others slaves? I cannot imagine why somebody can be amassing billions and billions as sitting allowance, wardrobe allowance, newspaper allowance, vehicle allowance and what they call suffering allowance.

“The people that should have such allowances should be the poor masses in the villages.

“As teachers, how much are they being paid? Our nurses and doctors, how much are they being paid? Let us be realistic, our civil servants that wake from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

“They wake up early and return late. How much are they being paid. And look at the level of inflation in the country.”

Mbaka asked the government to “speedily” address the minimum wage issue with the organised labour to avoid another strike.

The cleric said it is a matter of handling the bull by the horn tactfully but very speedily because “if they are not careful, this crisis of a thing can be hijacked and nobody knows the ripples effect.”

More expenses await African nationals seeking visas to enter the European Union as the EU plans to increase visa fees starting Tuesday, according to Schengen visa statistics released on Saturday.

The report stated that starting from Tuesday; African nationals would pay €90 instead of €80 for a Schengen visa application

The report stated that the EU had earned €3.4m from rejected Schengen visa applications submitted by Nigerian citizens.

According to the data, in 2023, African nationals received 704,000 negative responses for their visa requests.

“This means that €56.3m went up in smoke, considering that visa application fees are not refundable,” it stated.

The report noted that a high number of rejected visa applications had caused African nationals to spend millions every year, with the fees known as ‘reverse remittances’ benefitting no one but the EU countries.

“African nationals spent €56.3m in visa application fees in 2023, representing 43 per cent of all expenses; rejection rates in 2023 were especially high for African and Asian countries, which bear 90 per cent of all expenses. Expenditures are to increase by 12.5 per cent starting next week as the EU raises visa fees for adults from €80 to €90 on 11 June, following a recent decision by the EU Commission,” it added. 

Algeria was the country of origin for most rejected applications in 2023, representing 23.5 per cent of all amount spent on rejected applications.

The country also had the second-highest number of rejected applications compared to all – 289,000 out of 704,000, representing 42.3 per cent of all requests.

“This nationality group is especially impacted by visa rejections because it has high application rates and they are affected economically when placing visa applications” the report added.

It further explained that Moroccans, top visa applicants from Africa for the year, had the highest number of visas rejected.

 “A total of 437,000 visa requests filed by this nationality group were rejected in 2023, representing 62 per cent of the total. As per expenses, Moroccans spent €10.9m on rejected visa applications in 2023,” the report indicated.

It added that Africans were heavily impacted by those expenses, considering that the majority of African countries have some of the lowest wages in the world.

According to the report, the amount of Africans rejected visas is 43.1 per cent of all the amount generated by rejected applications in 2023.

A recent study by EU Observer revealed that the Schengen visa rejections generated an amount of €130m in 2023.

“In the previous year, this amount stood at €105m, showing an upward trend of Schengen visa expenses as well as rejection rates,” the report stated.

The founder of LAGO Collective, Marta Foresti, said, “Visa inequality has very tangible consequences and the world’s poorest pay the price. You can think of the costs of rejected visas as ‘reverse remittances’, money flowing from poor to rich countries. We never hear about these costs when discussing aid or migration, it is time to change that.”

About 30 travellers, including some students of the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa were reportedly abducted by suspected kidnappers along the Abuja-Nasarawa Highway on Friday.

PUNCH Metro gathered from a source who pleaded anonymity due to the nature of the incident on Sunday that the kidnappers laid siege to the vehicles conveying the travellers and abducted them into a nearby bush in the Uke area of Nasarawa State.

The source stated further that a student of the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa was travelling to her family in Abuja.

Our correspondent further gathered that a driver of one of the buses who escaped the attack called the attention of the police in the area to the incident.

The source said, “Thirty persons were kidnapped between Nasarawa and Abuja on Friday. The passengers were abducted from two buses and taken into the bush around a place called Uke in Nasarawa State.

“One of the passengers abducted in the incidents is an HND student of the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, in Nasarawa State, who was returning to Abuja to meet her family.

“One of the bus drivers escaped from the incident. When he returned to the vehicle, he picked up some items, including the phone of one of the kidnapped victims, and reported the incident to the police station in Uke.” 

When contacted by PUNCH Metro for a reaction on Sunday, the Nasarawa Police Public Relations Officer, Rahman Nansel, confirmed the incident in a telephone conversation with our correspondent, stressing that three victims had been rescued while a search and rescue operation was ongoing.

He, however, said the abducted persons were not up to 30 as claimed but did not confirm the number of the victims.

“The number (30) was exaggerated. An 18-seater bus was recovered at the scene and three people were rescued. A search and rescue operation is still ongoing,” Nansel told our correspondent.

PUNCH Metro reported in October 2023 that there was an invasion of a community in the Keffi Local Government Area by gunmen where four students of the state’s university were kidnapped and taken to an unknown destination.

Confirming the incident, Nansel explained that the abduction of the students occurred in the early hours at Angwan Ka’are area of the LGA.