Nollywood actor, Yul Edochie has faulted the claims by the House of Representatives that Nollywood is responsible for the rise in cases of ritual killings in the country.
Following the concerns among stakeholders over increasing incidents of ritual killings among youths in the country, the House of Representatives, on Wednesday, during a plenary session blamed Nollywood for the alarming rate of ritual killings in the country and declared a state of emergency to address the bad omen, tasking all stakeholders to begin a national campaign to change the orientation of the people towards the crime.
The lower chamber had asked the Executive Director of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), Adedayo Thomas “to rise to the mandate of the agency as the clearinghouse for all movies produced in the country.”
Responding to the House of Representatives’ indictment, the actor said Nollywood portrays what happens in society, and wondered why people would blame Nollywood for ritual killings, which, according to him, has been existing for years.
To further buttress his position, he said that crime cannot go away in the country when people are grappling with extreme poverty, and tasked the lawmakers to fix the country rather than blame the movie industry for the ritual killings menace.
He wrote on Instagram:
“From when I was a kid in the eighties, I started hearing about ritual killing in Nigeria. Then, there was no Nollywood. Hunger and poverty make people to do crimes. No, be Nollywood cause am.
“Nollywood is only showing what happens in society. Nigerians are wallowing in extreme poverty. A hungry man is an angry man.
“Fix the country and crime will go away. Don’t blame Nollywood.”
He added that the government should always strive to address the root cause of issues before taking action.
“Frustrated people use sniper to commit suicide. The remedy is to fix the reason for the frustration, not to ban sniper,” the actor wrote.
Ezinwanne Onwuka, senior staff reporter and columnist with WAP is a Nigerian-based writer and content developer. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Her interests include reading, writing, researching and graphic designing.
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