Actor blames House of Reps for death of colleagues

ayodele johnson

May 27, 2017 11:48 AM

The actor stated that the HoR's weak response to movie piracy has prevented actors from making good income.

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Actor, Saidi Balogun has submitted that the inability of his colleagues to afford health insurance has been the major cause of their deaths.

In addition, he feels the situation has been compounded by the House of Representatives' (HoR) soft stance against movie piracy.

According to him, the failure of the HoR to pass laws that will limit the activities of adulterators of movies has prevented actors from making enough money which could be channeled towards health insurance.

Balogun who spoke to Punch News at the unveiling of the "Banana Island Ghost" said:

“People die but because we are in the public eye, death of actors resonates more. Two million people can die but nobody would write about them unlike when actors die. People die every day.

"It is not that we are not checking ourselves, it happens but I am begging all actors to work on their health.

"I was supposed to celebrate my birthday from May 24 to 26 but I postponed it in honour of our fallen colleagues.

“The reason why most actors solicit for funds when they are ill is because of lack of health insurance and we should talk to insurance companies about that.

"If we are making our money now, we should look at health insurance policy for future sake.

"I keep begging that the House of Representatives pass hard laws on piracy because if we are making good money, we would be able to subscribe to insurance policies.

"If I am making N500,000 and the school fees of my daughter is N600,000, where would I see money for insurance?

"It is the people that are not passing hard laws on piracy that are killing us.

"I have an insurance policy as the President of The Golden Movies Ambassadors of Nigeria. I have been on an insurance policy for over four years.”

His comments came at the heels of the passing of top Nollywood actors such as Olumide Bakare, Pastor Ajidara and most recent, Moji Olaiya.

The actors kicked the bucket within a month interval.

While Olaiya died shortly after child birth, the duo of Bakare and Pastor Ajidara who were buried this week lost their lives following a battle with heart and respiratory disease and kidney failure respectively.

ayodele johnson

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