Veteran Nollywood actor, Jide Kosoko has rubbished claims that the Nigerian movie industry is behind the increase in kidnapping and ritual killing cases in the country.
This is coming after the Federal Government stated that Nollywood has influenced a lot of youths into delving into money rituals as a quick means of getting rich.
The Minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, also announced that the FG has placed a ban on the production of money ritual movies, and told movie producers to desist from making such movies.
Reacting to the new directive in a recent interview with Channels TV, Jide Kosoko said the claims are false, and Nollywood only portrays the happenings in the society.
He also questioned if politicians who embezzle government money learnt it from Nigerian movies.
His words,
“It’s a wrong accusation. A very wrong accusation. People should not forget that we have a responsibility to mirror the society and this not just by …we only try to mellow it with the entertainment.
It is our duty to let you know what happens at the other end for it to guide you, for you to be informed so that you can be able to know what and what to do.
We have heard of politicians embezzling money here and there. Are you saying that they learnt embezzlement in our movies too? All those people displaying money here and there, at occasions, at various functions. Are we the ones that taught them that?
In every production we would never glorify evil. Whichever movie that idiot that says he watched a movie that made him to be kidnapping, go and see that movie. What is the end of that person that kidnapped people? Why did he not learn from that and desist from going into the business of kidnapping rather than saying it is the movie. So it is not right. We have our own duty to mirror the society and give it as it is. One of the things we do, we get them from the public. We try as much as possible to play down on them before dishing it out.
I agree that the country is hot now and everybody should play down on whatever that can aggravte violence, not our industry alone.
Politicians should stop displaying money everywhere that entices this negative youth thinkers.”
