FG expresses shock at death of Eddie Ugboma

In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the fact that Chief Ugboma lived a purposeful life and left his footprint in the sands of time was a soothing consolation for all who knew him.

”In his lifetime, Ugboma produced a number of avant-garde movies that blazed the trail and fired the imagination of those who would later become the top producers in today’s Nollywood.

‘In a way, the success of the industry is a tribute to him and his co-pioneers,” the minister said.

He expressed federal government’s condolences to the family and friends of the late film maker and prayed that God would grant him eternal rest and comfort his family.

The 79 year-old veteran filmmaker and TV personality, died early Saturday morning while being prepared for surgery in Lagos.

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He was, last year, diagnosed with nervous neck and head pain leading to the left ear and eye malfunctioning.

Ugboma held the record for the only African to have shot 13 movies on celluloid.

He directed and produced films such as, the Rise and Fall of Oyenusi in 1979, The Boy is Good, Black President, Black Gold and Apalara, a film about the life and murder of Alfa Apalara in Oko Awo, Lagos.