Emeka Rollas, the president of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, AGN, has clarified his decision not to sue actress Adanma Luke in connection with the death of late actor, Junior Pope.
The tragic incident occurred on April 10, 2024, when Junior Pope and four crew members lost their lives in a boat accident in the River Niger while on their way to a movie location for the film ‘The Other Side of Life’, produced by Adanma Luke.
Despite the AGN’s suspension of Adanma, Rollas explained that they were unable to take legal action against her as Junior Pope was not a registered member of the guild.
According to Rollas, only the late actor’s immediate family or wife would have the legal standing to sue the movie producer based on the contract signed by Junior Pope.
During an interview on Arise TV, Rollas mentioned that he is currently focused on reorganizing 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.”
