Name producers trading movie roles for sex, movie producer challenges Ozokwor

Emerging movie producer, Desmond Utomwen has challenged veteran actress, Patience Ozokwor to name the pro­ducers accused of demanding sex from young female actresses before handing them roles in movies.

Utomwen, who stated this while speaking to journalists maintained that it is pertinent for anybody with verifiable information about the much rumored sex boom in the Nollywood to step up and make the information public as part of the steps to ensure sanity in the Nigeria movie Industry.

Ozokwor had reportedly in an exclusive interview with a tabloid accused movie producers of sexu­ally abusing young girls.

“Things are not working the way they ought to because producers are messing up. Some go as far as sleep­ing with young girls before giving them roles,” the veteran actress re­portedly said.

However, Utomwen, who re­cently added the much celebrated short film: “Shared” to the list of his works maintained that such a blanket accusation by Ozokwor puts the integrity of producers in the country to question and por­trays them as coquettish. This, ac­cording to Utomwen, is an unfair statement to the decent fold and is unacceptable.

“If it is true that the respected actress made such a statement, I think the least she can do now is to substantiate same. I don’t subscribe to wild allegations. While I am not defending the supposed “unscru­pulous producers” should there be any, I believe the allegations by Ozokwor, if substantiated will help the sanitization process of the Ni­geria movie industry.” Utomwen stated.