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Queen of Nigeria pageant president rubbishes tale of forcing queens into prostitution

Ugbah Cynthia Chidinma, the 2015 winner of the Queen of Nigeria Beauty Pageant, formerly known as Queen of Trust, last week called out the organizers of the beauty pageant on her Instagram page and accused them of asking her to sleep with men for money. She also alleged that she resigned from the position months ago because she couldn’t do it. She went ahead to mention names of one of the men she was asked to sleep with as Chief Mike Elechi. The former beauty queen who was dethroned by the organizers of the beauty pageant after she claimed to have resigned said the prize of a car and N1 million has not been given to her.

ENCOMIUM Weekly reached out to the organizers of the Queen of Nigeria Pageant to tell their side of the story. They rubbished everything she accused them off. Kevin Joseph Amroma who is the president of the organization had an exclusive phone chat with ENCOMIUM Weekly and gave us all the details on how Cynthia Ugbah emerged the winner in a free and fair competition but suddenly turned saucy and unruly after becoming queen.

ENCOMIUM Weekly, however, sent the former beauty queen, Cynthia Ugbah a message on her Instagram page but we got no reply as at press time.

 

When did Queen of Nigeria pageant start?

Queen of Nigeria pageant started in 2009. It was formerly called Queen of Trust Pageant. It is organized by 001 Entertainment.

Ugbah Cynthia
Ugbah Cynthia

How many queens have you crowned so far?

We started in 2009 and each year we crown three queens, the winner, the first runner-up and second runner-up as Queen of Trust, Queen of Trust Africa and Queen of Trust Nigeria.

How do you fund the pageant yearly?

001 Entertainment is a big organization. We have a recording studio and we are into events management. We get funds from other businesses. We source our sponsors, from reliable companies and individuals. We also make money from sales of tickets.

Our pageant is the biggest in the South South region. So, a lot of people around here buy tickets. It is also one of the most entertaining pageants in this region. In the first edition, our star prize was a flat screen television set. The first time we gave a car was in 2011 and in 2015. Most times there was no sponsor so, we give what we could, but we don’t mention what we can’t give or afford.

According to your former beauty queen, Cynthia Ugbah you force your queens to go into prostitution. Can you clear the air on that?

First, it is a lie, from A to Z. The girl in question won in a free and fair competition. In some pageants you hear that the girls are made to sleep with the organizers or even pay money.  People should ask her if she was made to do all that before she won. She came all the way from Lagos to Port Harcourt to contest. We had 15 contestants from Port Harcourt and the rest from other states and she still won.

Our problem with her started from a picture she posted on her Instagram page last year. I am the president of the organization. We have a director and assistant director of the pageant. The assistant director, who is a former beauty queen, Onyeka called and cautioned her about the pictures in a polite manner, pointing out to her that it doesn’t portray the organization and herself as a beauty queen in a good manner. She replied her saying, “This is not your reign, your reign has ended. Don’t tell me how to run mine.” She was very rude and saucy to the core. It is very sad that you can’t get to know people’s real character till they get fame or money. The assistant director reported to me but it was a bit late. By then Cynthia had deleted her from all her social media platforms. I called Cynthia and told her she had done wrong by being rude to Onyeka because aside being a former queen, she is also the assistant director of the organization. I pleaded with her to apologize via a text message, which she didn’t do.

In our contract, as a beauty queen, at the sixth month you should be rounding off your project or starting one. All our former beauty queens did one tangible project on the other. Up till now, she hasn’t done one project or even mentioned it. She stayed in Port Harcourt for close 10 months and wasn’t coming to the office or doing anything. We assigned a driver to take her everywhere in her car (the one she won), all she did was asking the driver to take her to the salon, the cinemas and other places.

I called a first meeting and told her to come down from Lagos because by then she was already based in Lagos, so we could discuss her pet project because another edition of the pageant was fast approaching. She was to come and write courtesy letters and draft proposals for her project, so that pictures from the project would be used to promote the next pageant. Another time she was supposed to come to Port Harcourt for a photoshoot. I personally called her, and she didn’t turn up without an excuse. During that rumour, I heard she was dating a guy who told her to leave our organization that he was going to buy her a car. I heard that from one of her close friends.

The third time she was supposed to come for a meeting we fixed for Monday, January 11, 2016. A message was passed to everyone two weeks to the meeting and Cynthia accepted to come for the meeting, but she did not turn up, only to send a message on Sunday night. I was so angry because we had a lot of planning to do towards the next edition. We had to dethrone her. She was a total embarrassment to the organization. When we dethroned her, she sent a message directly to me on BBM that she will deal with this organization and bring it down. I thought it was a casual threat till people started calling me on Thursday morning about what she posted on the internet. I have the messages saved.

I also read where she said her prize wasn’t given to her, the car issue is stated in the contract section 2:7, “I am fully aware that the star prize, a brand new Kia Rio will be under the management of Queen of Trust Organization till after my one year reign.” This means that we will be in control of the car till her reign is over. That’s why she has a driver that take she around.  Section 2:8 also states that, “I am fully aware the star prize, a brand new Kia Rio will become mine after my one year successful reign and I have the right to remove the official brand name from the car.”

Because of what she has said, we won’t be giving a Kia car out in the next edition so people won’t say it is the same car.

I also saw where she said we forced her to sleep with a particular person. She made a big mistake there. She did that trying to target our big sponsors which she succeeded in doing but the person is not our big sponsor, though he is one of our sponsors.

A courtesy letter was written to sponsors, including the man she mentioned and she was supposed to follow up on the letter as it included that she wanted to embark on her pet project which costs N2 million and would appreciate whatever contribution towards it. We didn’t get any feedback from her, we inquired from her, she said the man wasn’t taking her calls. The director even told her to be patient and even sent prayers as text message so he would have her project in mind. One day the director went to the secretariat in Port Harcourt and she saw the man so she introduced herself and even accused the man of refusing to assist in the queen’s project after receiving our letter. The man was so angry and he said he already gave our queen N150,000. The director was embarrassed and was shocked that she covered the matter up and apologized to the man. She didn’t believe the man at first, so she called our queen about the money. She was jittery and disconnected the call. She lied that she was having network issue.

She said the man gave her N90,000 and it was for her birthday. We were all so angry because this was someone that has the ability to give us N500,000 to help with your pet project because he is someone who supports charity works. He single-handedly built a church in a village in Port Harcourt. Whenever we have the pageant, he doesn’t really like to support but he is a lover of charitable acts. It was so annoying that she prioritized her birthday over her pet project.

She accused us that we forced her to sleep with a man but went behind us to collect money from the same man for her birthday. So, how are we sure that she didn’t have an affair with the man? We realized that she is self-centered and is uncontrollable.

I had been trying to control the situation, but Monday’s issue was so embarrassing and annoying because people travelled from all over to be at the meeting. She also said she asked for flight money and we didn’t give her which isn’t true. Since September, she hasn’t gone to any event. Her runner-up has been the one going. Her plan is to stay back in Lagos and come back when her reign is almost over to pick the car and as a beauty queen she was supposed to attend events to make the brand more popular.

Aside the car, what else was she supposed to get?

I would break it down because a lot of people don’t know how pageants work. The money is supposed to be given quarterly. She misbehaved on her third month and she was suspended. The runners-up have gotten theirs. The way things are, the first runner-up will end up taking the car home at the end of the day. She is a final year student of UNIPORT.

She is saying she had resigned before you dethroned her, how true is this?

We already suspended her before she sent us a message that she was resigning. She later told me she did so because some people told her we won’t call her back after the suspension. The email she claimed she sent wasn’t received because our official email and website wasn’t functioning as we were trying to upgrade our website. So, how come she sent the email? Even after claiming to have resigned her name on her Instagram page when she came out open was Cynthia, Queen of Nigeria formerly known as Queen of Trust even till now that is still her name on BBM.

Since the issue came to the open, has she tried to reach out to you or your organization?

No, she hasn’t.  But I’ve been receiving calls from people supporting her saying all sorts of things on her Instagram page.

-TINUOLA JOSEPH

Encomium

Written by Encomium

A media, tech and events company.

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