Veteran actor, Richard Mofe-Damijo, popularly known as RMD, has shared compelling insights into the compensation of actors in today’s Nollywood.

He made this known during a panel discussion at the Africa International Film Festival held during the week.

During the panel session moderated by actor, Enyinna Nwigwe, Mofe-Damijo expressed his willingness to support emerging talents.

He said, “If a student approaches me to star in a movie, I will even give the student money to shoot. If Enyinna Nwigwe tells me that he is working on his film, I will work with him based on the father-son relationship that we have.

“If a student comes to me, I will never charge. I have done free films for students, for young producers, and for young actors. What actors want is a structure. There is nothing wrong with you calling my agent.”

Addressing the financial aspect, he asserted, “There is no money that you will pay an actor in today’s Nollywood that we would consider as big money. We love the work so much that we are not able to work according to your budget.”

During the discussion, RMD echoed the sentiments of his fellow panellist, actress Shaffy Bello, where she emphasised the importance of respecting those behind the project.

He highlighted the industry’s collective passion for reeling out compelling narratives, adding, “Actors are all suckers for good stories. Once the story is good, you have got the attention of the actor.”

A performing artiste based in Osogbo, Osun State, popularly known by the stage name, Tola King, has reportedly died after a brief illness that started during a church concert on Saturday.

The Governor of Celestial Performing Artistes Association of Nigeria, in Osun State, Temitope Awosika, who confirmed the incident during an interview with PUNCH on Sunday, said Tola King was performing alongside his other colleagues at a concert organised by a Celestial church located in the Obalende area of Osogbo in the early hours of Saturday, when he suddenly took ill.

Awosika, who said he was contacted when the artiste took ill, further said Tola King was promptly attended to inside the church before he was rushed to an undisclosed hospital in Osogbo, from where he was transferred to another hospital in Ile-Ife at daybreak.

He further said, “Tola King was one of us in the Osun chapter. Saturday morning, I was called around 3 am, but I didn’t pick up the call. Around 5:30 am, I picked up the call. There was a concert at a Celestial Church in Obalende, Osogbo.

“The person that called me is one Evangelist Femi. The deceased and Femi were called to perform at the same time. Tola King performed for a while and dropped the microphone for Femi. After that, Femi said Tola suddenly held him from the back.

“He was immediately attended to as his breathing was at that point becoming heavy. Within 10 minutes, he was rushed to a hospital. From that first hospital, he was referred to another hospital in Ile-Ife. He was promptly attended to in that Ife hospital.

“Around 1:30 pm Saturday, his condition did not improve and by 2 pm, he gave up the ghost. He didn’t slump in the church. He was made to sit down when he took ill in the church. He was given first aid before he was taken to hospital.”

The CPAAN governor, who said the incident had thrown the association into mourning, charged people to lead a righteous life, as death remained a certain end for all creatures.

The Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has sentenced cashier, Tunde Abdulramon, to five years’ imprisonment for his employer’s N64,420,900 to marry a new wife and also for opening the same kind of his employer’s business for his new wife.

Justice Raliat Adebiyi who handed down the sentence also ordered the convict to make restitution by returning all the properties he bought while in his employer’s establishment and also the money that he stole.

The convict was arraigned on August 19, 2013, on 11 counts which bordered on stealing and fraudulent false accounting, preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The offences committed contravened Sections 390 and 335 (d) of the criminal laws of Lagos State 2003.

Abdulramon’s duty as the cashier of Prime Grocers International Limited, a company selling wholesale and retail consumer goods located in the Oke Arin area of Lagos State, was to collect payments for invoices raised by sales representatives from customers, document them in his cash register and then lodge monies collected into the company’s designated bank account.

The convict, instead, was accused of deleting the invoices and diverting large sums of money paid by customers and lodgers until the company’s managing director discovered the fraud in 2012 after an audit of the computer software was collected following a tip-off that the convict had been deleting invoices.

Abdulramon committed the offences between January 2009 and 2012, when he was discovered to be defrauding his employer.

During the trial, the prosecution called six witnesses, including the complainant, Constance Obi, who told the court that she met the convict in 2002 when the company started importing goods for distribution.

She told Justice Adebiyi that Abdulramon was one of the casual labourers who discharged goods from the container, but that in 2004, he approached her for assistance and then he was permanently employed at the company.

The witness testified that the convict’s duty in 2004 included picking and packing goods for customers before he was promoted to a cashier.

Obi further testified that she received an anonymous call in November 2012, telling her to check the cashier in her store, Tunde Abdulrahmon, as he is a criminal because of some properties that he recently acquired, vehicles, and a new wife.

She also told the court that three days after she received the call, the convict came to her office to tender a resignation letter, which she refused to collect.

The complainant stated that it was thereafter that she checked the computer’s audit trail that filtered the convict’s identification and printed out a report that showed that he had been deleting invoices.

But the convict in his defence denied the allegations against him.

Delivering her judgment, Justice Adebiyi found the convict guilty.

She held that the evidence was that the complainant was unshaken and the prosecution was able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the convict altered the company’s record.

The judge held that the convict was the mastermind in the deleting of all the invoices and diverting payments made by customers to both his personal and business accounts.

“Abdulramon took advantage of the level of the trust reposed by the chief executive officer of the company (complainant), the offence was also committed continuously and repeatedly for over a period of four years.

“The court finds the level of culpability of the convict to be high; as regards the harm caused, the court finds that the acts of the convict ought to have caused a degree of significant economic loss to his employer although the employer appeared not to have realised this for four years.

“The amount stolen was of significant value and the convict was also involved in conducting a similar kind of business to that of his employer, whilst still in employment therefore creating a conflict of interest,” the judge held.

“Tunde Abdulramon is hereby sentenced on counts one to nine, to two and half years and counts 10 and 11 two and half years, to run concurrently,

“The court hereby orders the disposal of properties acquired by the convict that was acquired with proceeds of the offence and payment of proceeds to the complainant,” Justice Adebiyi held.

The Edo State Police Command said it arrested the husband of a woman who allegedly committed suicide in Benin in the “Mummy Calm Down” viral video because of some issues that surrounded the alleged suicide.

The victim, Mrs Toluige Olokoobi Babalola, a mother of three, was alleged to have committed suicide by hanging herself with a rope in their apartment in Garick Layout, Ekhuan, Benin City, on November 8.

Speaking with City & Crime, the command’s spokesperson, Chidi Nwabuzor, said the suicide case was reported at the Evbuotubu Police Station on November 8, by the deceased’s husband, Lawal, that on returning from the market he met his son, Ifeo, crying and that he burst the door open and met his wife on a rope tied to the ceiling.

He further said, “The husband said himself and some neighbours rushed her to the hospital where she was confirmed dead.

“The DPO and the man went to the house and recovered the rope and alleged suicide note written by the deceased wife.

“The DPO moved the suspect to the hospital to check the body of the deceased to see if there was any mark of violence, and with due diligence, there was no mark of violence on her body.

“But there are issues surrounding the alleged suicide. The husband claims that the neighbours came upon his outcry and helped him to bring down the woman from the rope.

“But the neighbours said, ‘No, we didn’t know anything about losing the woman from the rope. When we came we met you lying on her crying’.”

He said based on the report from the DPO that there was no mark of violence on the deceased body, the Commissioner of Police (CP), Muhammed Dankwara, ordered an investigation into the matter.