AGN President, Rollas solicit support for ailing Leo Mezie *Requests that fund be paid to him directly
Worried by the controversy surrounding the fund raising activities for ailing Nollywood actor, Leo Mezie, who is seeking financial assistance for a kidney transplant, President, Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) Mr. Ejezie Emeka Rollas has appealed to the public to desist from sending monies to accounts that are not in Mezie’s name so that he can have access to the funds.
Rollas made the appeal at a media parley Wednesday in Surulere, Lagos.
He said that the AGN foundation is set up for ailing actors and not meant to be raising funds on individual basis.
“We are saying that anybody who wants to assist Leo Mezie should pay directly into his account and not the AGN foundation account. We will be bringing some skits to educate the public on how to go about that. Any other account anywhere should be disregarded. If you want to assist Leo, there is no contractual agreement with any NGO or group that is masquerading under the name of trying to help Leo Mezie. If Leo Mezie will live, he will live directly from his account. He doesn’t have to go to be spoon fed in lieu of this. This is to set the record straight t.”
Also, another actor, Mr. Jimmy Makinde who is down with stroke would be receiving support from the AGN foundation as well’.
Rollas said ‘AGN or Nollywiood are not the only people living in this country. Other people have cases and they sought themselves out without rushing to the internet to do all of these. And we do not want to wash our dirty linens outside.”
He also added that they have obtained necessary documentations that would enable the foundation seek assistance for Mezie.
He said: “Recently, all over the internet, we heard different stories concerning one of our own, Leo Mezie – about a fund raising campaign to get him a kidney transplant done outside Nigeria. Upon the information as it got to me, I quickly called the chairman of the fundraising Segun Arinze and chairman, Actors Guild of Nigeria, Lagos State chapter, Mojisola Oyetayo and took a decision to visit Mezie to ascertain the true picture of things. On Monday, Oyetayo and I went to Idimu at his brother’s place and met him. After listening to his story, we got convinced that Mezie needs urgent attention to enable him live. Early this morning, we went to the hospital to conduct necessary test and obtained necessary documentations that would enable the foundation seek for assistance for him. We are looking to raise the sum of N20m for his case.
“Our concern is that in the last four years, the internet has been bombarded with actors sourcing for funds for one illness or the other. We all remember the case of Prince James Uche and the controversy that is always following such drives for funds. That is why last year; we decided to set up the AGN foundation. The foundation is a corporate entity. Before we talk of raising funds at this level, we will ascertain certain form of authenticity of the ailment. But the foundation has not started running. We only set up a committee, did a presentation to the media. We have not officially launched the foundation. We are looking at the month of May to do that.
“Recently, because we got some money we were able to give out little assistance. We call it temporal relief to some members who had fallen sick and were unable to take care of themselves. We decided since the foundation was not up and running, we distributed little money to some of them while we prepare for the programme of the foundation which includes a charity show, among other activities. People are misunderstanding the essence of the foundation. We have looked at this Leo Mezie’s case and it is something we have to tackle immediately,” Emeka Rollas said.
For assistance and donation: Leo Onyemechi Mezie, No: 0125346916 Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB).
