Cross River Nollywood Actors End Meeting in Disarray

by crossriverwatch admin

The last meeting of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, AGN in Cross River State ended in a deadlock following disagreements by members over the Guild’s President, Ibinabo Fiberesima’s electoral framework for the state chapter billed for September this year.

CrossRiverWatch gathered that the framework as presented to the meeting by the chapter chairman, Eric Anderson, who claimed he was acting on instructions from the national president of the Guild, indicates that all activities concerning the dissolution of the current executive, institution of electoral committee, conduct of election and swearing in of prospective executive members are to take place the same month against the usual three months practice in successive years.

The announcement of this framework, our reporter gathered, did not go down well with members who are already suspicious of sharp practices allegedly geared towards reinstating the current chairman, Eric Anderson, who is said to have already began cementing this arrangements with ‘madam at the top’ by his recent frequent visits to beef up his relationship with her to enable him have his way come September.

Members who raised issues against the electoral framework include Ekpe Deme, Iya Orok amongst others.
Iya Orok was said to have requested that the constitution which has been held secret by the current administration be produced to give clarity to things but the chairman who may have sensed some bad notes was said to have vetoed that request and stood it down.

Mr. Anderson also used the opportunity to declare his intention to rerun as chairman of the chapter, which according to the Guilds electoral norm may be unlawful to declare before dissolution as this could disqualify him.

The current administration was in November 2012 fingered in huge financial misappropriation, which led to the Chairman’s suspension; and since then a cogent financial report is yet to be presented to members.

Since the crisis in November last year, the chapter has witnessed a dropdown in membership from the 400 the chairman claimed publicly during the Spirit of Jezebel movie premiere at Channel View to between 20 and 30 members attending meetings; despite that this number no longer constitute a quorum for meeting.

Last meeting was said to have been attended by only 20 members.

All efforts to speak with Mr. Anderson were not successful as all calls to his GSM did not connect.

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