President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, Emeka Rollas has come out to say that the association will no longer fold its hands and watch as actresses become targets for blackmail by their estranged lovers and bloggers.

This is coming after Tonto Dikeh accused her ex-lover, Prince Kpokpogri, of blackmail on social media.

According to Emeka, the association will use Tonto’s revelation as a deterrent to all other persons currently profiling actresses for blackmail because it can no longer be condoned.

He added that the guild will also take a look at cases of members who have taken to social media to call their colleagues out or make statements that can cause disunity in the guild.

His words, ”Events of the last few days have shown that Actresses are now marked for blackmail especially hinging it on the basis of relationship gone awry. But should it be a reason for publishing private conversations without consent of the other party?”

“We shall use this one to set example to serve as a deterrent to all other persons including bloggers presently profiling actresses for blackmail to have a rethink.”

“We will no longer fold our hands and watch our members taken to public ridicule via invasion of privacy.”

“We are also looking into cases where our certified members have taken to social media to call fellow member out or make statements that can bring disrepute to our Guild or cause disharmony among members.”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.