Mercy Johnson Nollywood Ban: Marketers Say They Will Not Lift Ban Until She Apologizes!

In November 2013 it was revealed that actress Mercy
Johnson had been banned by The Film and Video
Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria
(FVPMAN) for ‘unbecoming attitude of the actress as it
affects her work.”

That was the official reason, the real reason had to do
with her fees…Mercy Johnson who is currently ten
highest paid actress in Nollywood charges between
N1.8 Million & N2 Million per movie
In the latest development concerning Mercy Johnson’s
ban it has been gathered that the marketers have vowed
not to lift the ban until the actress tenders a letter of
apology to them through their umbrella body, Film and
Video Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria,
FVPMAN.

But according to Vanguard , all is not well with the rank
and file in the marketers’ body since they slammed the
ban on the actress.
According to a reliable source, while the chairman of
the Lagos State chapter of the association, Mr Nobert
Ajaegbu granted an interview last year, disowning the
proposed ban of the actress, his aggrieved members
who were dissatisfied with his action have refused to
pay their dues to the association.
Following this development, Mr. Ajaegbu is said to have
changed his position in order to give peace a chance.

He
told HVP that he decided to retrace his steps after he
found out that Mercy Johnson actually committed all
the things she was accused of. He said, “It was a case
of established indiscipline on the part of Mercy
Johnson,”

In a statement made available to HVP, Ajaegbu who
doubles as FVPMAN spokesman, addressed some of
the salient issues surrounding Mercy’s alleged ban.
According to him, “We did not ban Mercy because; we
have resolved never to play ourselves god in any one’s
life.

We only resolved to severe our business relationship
with her because she have shown strong disregard to
the rules of professional conduct and abuse on the
terms of production contracts.”
Ajaegbu said, the ban was a “factor of mixed truth and
falsehood.

The issue in question has no bearing on her
fee or charges as widely speculated. It is a function of
misconduct, unjust and unfair treatment of film
producers. We are obviously not agitated over what
Mercy is being paid because, we pay the bills.We are
strongly agitated because we anticipate that
professional justification ought to have been given to the
contract to act or perform. We believe that the sanctity
of contract ought to have been respected.”
He went on to say, “The facts as we know before are
that some of our members contracted Mercy at a
particular scale of charge, when she collected money
from higher bidders, she disregarded the contracts at
lesser price and to some, she gave stringent and
unprofessional conditions. We had written a letter to
her in this regard about a year ago. The letter was a
private advice from our union as well as a caution.

We
thought it wise to first caution her in case it was an
unconscious attitude. Her inconsiderate attitude of
disregarding this untold hardship on producers leaves
us with no option, than to severe this uncommon
relationship. It is not a ban, but simply a survival
strategy. We took our time to investigate these
allegations and came to the conclusion that they are not
spurious. We did strong internal engagements,
disagreements before arriving at the actual prove of
facts relating to this issue.
Since the speculation in late October, last year, we had
anticipated her to demonstrate some sort of remorse.
What we see is more of blackmail and ridicule. What
is said to the world by her publicist was the tale of
how we are unable to afford her charges or portray
our people as envious of what she is being paid.”

Damm! They really have it out for her