Encomium
‘It’s cheap blackmail’
Hubby, Chukwuma Orizu reacts,
‘I trust my wife’
STAR actress, Angela Okorie has rubbished the stories flying right, left and centre that she was involved in adultery with one Prosper Oyinnaka while shooting a movie in South Africa. In an exclusive interview with ENCOMIUM Weekly, the sweet-faced, sexy actress told her story. She also blamed Muma Gee’s husband, Prince Ekeh, whom she worked with on the set of a movie, for her predicament even as she dismissed him and the said Prosper as cheap blackmailers.
Angela also cleared her name in the case of stealing leveled against her in South Africa, while urging her fans to ignore them all.
Relatedly, Angela’s husband, Mr. Chukwuma Orizu has risen in defence of his wife, whom he described as his trusted companion. In his first ever reaction to the needless scandal rocking his home, Orizu told ENCOMIUM Weekly on Saturday, May 11, 2014, he knew everything about his wife’s movement in South Africa. “We talked every minute of the day, I laughed because I know my wife is innocent.”
Her story…
You’ve been in the news lately over the allegation of stealing and adultery. What really happened?
I was in Nigeria when this thought of doing Nwa Abakiliki in South Africa came to me. I shot Nwa Abakiliki and Ada Abakiliki with Prince Ekeh here in Nigeria for a producer. And since I have a job for a friend of mine in South Africa (Ikenna), I then decided to shoot my own movie there. And that is Nwa Abakiliki in South Africa. Prince Ekeh was the right man for the job, having been in the cast of the previous productions. After he agreed, I paid $1,200 for his visa and the same amount for mine, too. I paid all his bills before we left the country.
He agreed he was going to be in my fried’s job since mine was not enough to keep him in South Africa. I spoke to Ikenna who agreed to that. I then told him (Ikenna) I needed another face from South Africa. Ikenna was to run my production with the money he was supposed to pay me. So, it was more like a trade by barter thing. He was to give me Tuvi James and then I will give him Prince Ekeh. I was to pay Prince Ekeh $1,000 for my job and the role he was to play in Ikenna’s job.
Interestingly, I paid for all of Ekeh’s ticket all the way from Port Harcourt. When he arrived, I even introduced him to my husband. Then, there was one of my friends, Blessing who escorted us to the airport too. As we were checking in, Prince called the girl aside and was asking her if I was travelling with dollars. The girl said she doesn’t know. He said, ok. He was also asking me the same question when I bought him cigarette here in Lagos.
He smokes?
Yes, his brand of cigarette is Dunhill. I took care of him like a friend before and during my shoot. When we got to South Africa, I put him in a hotel, but the apartment he was supposed to stay I was already staying there. That was after our production deal with Ikenna crumbled.
How did the Prosper guy come in?
He is my fan. We have been talking on phone before we arrived South Africa. Our relationship never went beyond fan-artist relationship.
What happened to Prince’s original hotel?
While I was staying in that apartment, Prince called one day that he wanted to come and see where I was putting up. By then we hadn’t started shooting. When he came, he screamed and said he would love to be there. I asked him the movie he had ever shot and stayed in the same apartment with the producer. I told him I just needed to be comfortable. He then said he doesn’t want to stay there anymore. It was actually Ikenna that put him there, since he was to shoot his movie first.
At a point we had issue with Ikenna over the cost of shooting the movie. He wanted 100,000 rands ($10,000) after I had paid for his artistes. At that point, I got angry. With the collapse of our agreement, we didn’t work for Ikenna again. That was how Prince Ekeh took over my apartment. It was again at this point I called Prosper. If we had anything to do, I would have called him the day I arrived South Africa, not after four days. The day he came, we went together to pick Prince from the hotel he had been staying. I paid his bills since Ikenna was no longer in the picture.
How much was that?
I paid 700 rands (that’s about N7,000 or N8,000). It’s not a luxury hotel per se. He later took over my apartment since Prince said they can’t stay together. My next option was to look for another hotel that is not far from Ekeh’s. He took me to one hotel called Mercure Inn, Ranburg. They said a night there was about 900 rands (between N9,000 to N10,000), but when I brought out my card to pay, Prosper said I shouldn’t pay that I should come to his house and stay. Meanwhile, he was already staying with a girl called MK, she is my fan too. In fact, I even knew Prosper through her. It was actually what made me see them as my brother and sister. And since they offered me this, I couldn’t reject it after we talked about it for over three hours. I was looking at it the other way round. Still I had my fears. It wasn’t time we settled that this guy (Prosper) started making passes at me. He would be saying he likes me a lot o, and I was thinking, it was just all about my movies. I didn’t know where he was going until he started acting funny. It got to a point he was getting upset with everybody coming around me, even my cast and crew.
He volunteered to help me out with location runs, but I was also paying for it. I buy fuel for him. I feed him too. He also helped me in buying food for my artistes. I later knew he actually didn’t have money but was pretending. So, one day, I had to advise him to be real. This Prosper kept acting in strange ways. He wouldn’t want to see people around me. One day, I had to ask him what he does for a living and he said he was a rapper. But he was constantly with us on location and was borrowing money from me, which he never paid. It got to a point that Tuvi James told me to be careful of him and Prince.
On Friday night (Good Friday), he came to my bed and was ‘touching’ me, I warned him to stay off me. I told him I don’t take nonsense from people. I bluntly told him I was married with a son and can’t do anything with him. When I locked my room, he came knocking but again, I ignored him. I left his house the next day.
Was he aware you were leaving?
He knew. I told him I was going to Cape Town. I left with a cab guy, Chibuzor to pack my things (I know the guy in Nigeria, way back). I wanted to go to Cape Town to cool off after my production. He was not happy with my decision, but I ignored him.
Did you ever report these things to Prince?
Yes, I told Prince that this guy was asking me out.
But Prince said, you were the one that told him you are dating Prosper?
That’s a lie. Never in my life. If I lied, let my career crash this minute. I was the one telling Prince that what this guy was looking for I cannot give him. We even had an argument one day, where he was saying he doesn’t know what is wrong with me, that he has told Prince what he wants, so Prince needs to talk to me about it. I told him it’s his business with Prince, I can’t date him as a married woman. Period. I told him that Prince has already told me, you said I should be petting you. I’m sorry I cannot pet you because you are neither my son nor my husband. I can only thank you for all the help you have been rendering to me. And that was what I did every day. He would just be smiling sheepishly, suggesting he wants more than that. When I left the house, I sent him a text and told him I’m sorry I can’t do what you want. I have left your house and dropped your key with security like you always instruct me to do, but I will never gossip about you.
Meanwhile, there was this guy called Ken. I met him with his wife when we were shooting. Ken is married to two women, a South African and a Nigerian. When he wanted to talk to me, Prosper rushed to the guy and told him not to worry that he would talk to me. His wife is even my biggest fan. It was this guy that used his credit card to pay for a hotel for me at Hilton Sandton. And this is the guy I have been confiding in. What has been happening all these while. I also told my friend Seyi, who is my best friend’s brother’s friend, a childhood friend.
Seyi too is a big boy in South Africa. He was also aware of what was going on. And told me not to worry. So, I moved to the hotel Kenny paid for me. He was never in my house any day. He even took me to his wives and introduced me to them. He was like rendering a help. He paid with his credit card. I was not even there when he paid. I was still shooting. When I confirmed he paid, I told Prosper I was in Hilton Sandton. Yes, I told him where I was.
Including your room number?
Yes. Room 118. I gave him direction. In fact, I sent him a text also informing him that some friends want to host me that night. I even invited him over if he wanted to hang out with us as a friend who never had anything in mind. Seyi said he was coming to pick me. I said, it’s okay. I had my bath. I was really tired. I was on the bed, still on my casual wear when Prince called me around 2 a.m when I wanted to ease myself.
That was when?
That same Saturday. He had called me about seven times but I didn’t see his call. I also saw Prosper’s missed calls. When I called Prince, he said Prosper called to tell him that his money was missing in the house. I said what? I laughed. He said, “Stop laughing, this is a serious matter. He said 32,000 Rands was missing in his house. And I was like I have been the one who has been feeding him since three weeks now. I even buy fuel for him. So, how come he has 32,000 Rands in his house? But he has been lying his credit card is in Israel, Jerusalem and Nigeria. I then said, well this is my hotel, I sent my address to Prince. I also sent it to Prosper. And Prince said, “I’m coming with Prosper to your hotel.”
It wasn’t up to 15 minutes I spoke with Prince, I got a call from the reception that I have a visitor who is coming upstairs with security. He didn’t tell me he was coming with cops. So, when I opened the door, I saw Prosper and about three police people. Prince was not there. That was why I said Prince sold me out. Prince knew everything that was going on. The police people said Prosper alleged I stole his money -32,000 rands. I said, Prosper you are so cheap, what would you be doing with 32,000 rands? So, I said Prosper, this is all you want. Oh, you are so cheap, you are so hungry. Just $3,200. Interestingly, you can’t keep more than 5,000 rands at home in South Africa. I said, oh, you are so hungry, you need some money to hold on since I’ve left the house. He said, it’s my own cup of tea, they should just arrest me. I changed and followed them to Sandton Police Station. And when we got there, the police said they would take my pix and put me in the net. They also wanted to blackmail me. I then knew the guy was working with them. What this Prosper does is to lure foreigners with big money, whom he reports to the police and gets his share. That is what he does for a living.
What happened next?
I said, how can I pay money that I didn’t steal? They are working together. This is a guy I have been feeding. Meanwhile, as I got to the police station, Prince was already waiting for them, because they planned it to come and arrest me and bring me to the police station while he was there waiting for me. When I came Prince said, Angela, give Prosper this money. Just give him for your reputation, because you are a star. You know how far you’ve gone in your career. When they put this thing in the net, it will be bad o. I said, are you mad? Are you sick in the head? I can’t do that. I don’t have this guy’s money. The police told me to just pay, that they won’t put it on the net. So, they took me from Sandton Police to Honeydew. There they told me I should answer this guy. They were all working together. It’s that point I called Seyi and told him what was going on. He laughed. He said what, that he was coming to Honeydew. So, he left because he was already there (that was around 2.40 a.m). When he arrived, he took Prosper to a corner and told him bluntly, “You know this girl didn’t take your money. He scolded him for going this far because of poverty and lust. He was asking Seyi to drop whatever he had so he can settle the case. Seyi said, ‘I’m just giving you this, you know Angela didn’t steal this money.’ He told him I have spent over $20,000 in South Africa. He now followed Seyi who went to ATM to collect 10,000 rands he gave to him for him to take the case out of the police station. That is about $1,000. He collected the money and left with Prince. Before he left they transferred me to Ranburg, where a case file was opened. The warrant officer that handled the case is called Single. I slept in police cell in Ranburg. I left on Sunday morning. When he came and told the police he wants my passport which he will release after I give him the balance of 22,000 rands. My lawyers agreed and he signed. When he came out I asked him, which balance. That same night, he and Prince slept in the apartment I paid for. I heard Prince telling Seyi to let him know when he gives Prosper the balance of 22,000 rands.
Seyi asked why, he said, he just wanted to know since he has been involved all along. Seyi later came to me to tell me Prince and Prosper planned it. It was at this stage, I cursed all of them. I told Prince he sold me out. I really washed Prince Ekeh down. The warrant officer (Mrs. Single) later told my lawyer that Prosper and Prince blackmailed me. He even said Prosper out-smarted the South African cops. I had to return to the original hotel Prosper took me initially so as to conclude my job.
Did you later pay the 22,000 rands?
I did not.
Would you work with Prince Ekeh again?
No, Prince is a thief. I will never work with him again.
Has the case been closed?
South Africa police are looking for Prosper. He no longer sleeps at home.
What steps have you taken to clear your name?
My husband and fans know the truth.
Any regret trusting a fan that far?
I have a lot of regrets in this respect. I won’t be too much nice and open to people anymore. As I talk with you I have up to five people living in my house. I trust people a lot.
How supportive has been your husband in all these?
My husband has been quite supportive. He knows me well. My husband said if you were sleeping with this guy, he wouldn’t have blackmailed you. And that is the truth. If I stole his money, I wouldn’t have sent my address too.
What are your full names?
Angela Okorie-Orizu.
How long have you been married?
I’ve been married for about five years. I met my husband while I was working for Delta soap. We dated for two years before we got married. I gave birth to my baby in 2012.
When did you start acting?
I started acting 2009/2010.
What did you study?
Public Administration, Lagos State University. I’m currently in UNILAG, studying Theatre Arts.
Where are you from?
Ishiagu, Abakiliki, Ebonyi State.
How many movies have you shot so far?
Over 80 movies. Holy Serpent brought me to limelight. There is also Maiden Heart of a Widow. My first production was Ghetto Girl but it’s not out yet. I sell out my movie. I produce under Moving Train Productions.
‘They can’t break my home’ – Angela’s hubby, CHUKWUMA ORIZU
ENCOMIUM Weekly also spoke with Angela’s husband, Chukwuma Orizu who defended his wife…
What are your names, sir?
I am Chukwuma Orizu.
What was your reaction when you first heard about the allegations against your wife, Angela?
First of all, I know everything about my wife’s movement in South Africa. We talked every minute that day. I laughed because I know my wife didn’t do it. I know they just wanted to tarnish her image.
So, what necessary steps have you taken to clear her name?
A lot of people have been calling me and saying all sorts of things, and I told them that I know my wife very well and she didn’t do all they said against her. I know all they want is to break our home, but I am sorry to disappoint them. Please, my marriage is very much intact. Remember what the Bible says, “What God has joined, let no man put asunder.” So, I can’t chase my wife away because of mere allegation and rumours from people who don’t know her more than I do.
UCHE OLEHI
