Job Osazuwa

A movie director and producer, Mr. Paul Julius, has said that he didn’t swindle his colleague, Mr. Tunde Alabi, of any money, contrary to claims by the latter.

Alabi, whose right foot was amputated after a protracted illness, had described one of his friends as a wolf in sheep’s clothing that came to compound his predicament and left him shattered and broken-hearted.

Daily Sun published a report on the allegations by Alabi against an unnamed actor in November last year. The story was entitled Double trouble: How friend defrauded me of N1.5m, by amputee Nollywood actor.

But Julius, who said Alabi was referring to him, countered that there was no iota of truth in what the bedridden veteran actor has been saying. He said he came into the sick man’s life when virtually everybody, including family members, had abandoned him.

He told the reporter that a disciplinary committee set up by the Actors’ Guild of Nigeria (AGN) had submitted its report on its investigation and found nothing against him on the embezzlement alarm raised by Alabi.

Alabi, who featured in the early series of the late Segun Olusola, The Village Headmaster, had alleged that, while he was still in the hospital two years ago, Julius was busy milking him dry. He also claimed that about N1.5 million of what was donated by kind-hearted Nigerians for his cause went into Julius’s pocket.

But Julius said he was shocked by the man’s allegations. He decried how the spurious claims dented his credibility.

He said it was disheartening that all he got from Alabi was condemnation, instead of commendation, saying, for the love of Alabi, a senior colleague whom he so much adored, he abandoned his business and took the risk to wade into the man’s predicament.

“This is a man who was abandoned by everybody but I decided to rescue him. His condition was pitiable when I saw him. Everybody in our industry knows what I am talking about. I am not saying this to disrespect him, but his family members also deserted him.  

“I was planning for my trip to Germany in 2016 for the annual Nollywood Film Festival, when I got a call from Uncle Alabi that he was on admission at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Oyingbo, Lagos. I rushed down there. Out of the N5,000 I had, I spent N4,500 to clear his bills. 

“He registered me as his next of kin, but I told them at the hospital that it was not true. I asked him about his family members so that I could contact them, but he gave different stories and later said he had none. It was tough at the FMC spending my money and taking my time to take care of him until I became tired. His daughter and nephew later showed up.

“But it is very painful for the same man that I sacrificed everything for to turn around to say I defrauded him. I cleaned his faeces. I did all I did for him without expecting any reward,” he said.

The incapacitated actor acknowledged that Julius was the one who brought the idea to solicit funds for him when he could no longer pay his medical bills and his health was deteriorating by the day. But he also said that Julius later began to live large on the money realised from the public, even while he, Alabi was bedridden. The thespian said the most painful part was the N500,000 that Julius allegedly collected from him while he was still in hospital. The money, so the claim went, was given to Julius to enable him to get an apartment for the ailing actor.

But Julius described the claim as ridiculous. He explained that all the money raised was directly paid into the patient’s account. He said there was no single kobo that he spent in procuring drugs, renting accommodation and other things while he was running around that was without Alabi’s knowledge.  

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“I didn’t steal from him. He even owes me because I have not been paid for all I did for him. I spent more than N1,000 daily for my transportation to and fro the hospital for the first eight months. I bought newspapers, fruits and other things for him from my pocket. Every transaction we carried out on his behalf was authorised,” he said.

Julius, who said he could not understand why the man suddenly came up with such weighty allegations, lamented that his business associates had been calling him from everywhere to substantiate the veracity of Alabi’s charges against him. He said the man has so much assassinated his character for no reason that it might take him a long time to correct.

Said he: “There is no day I don’t get a telephone call from colleagues, family members or friends saying they saw my name and picture on the Internet, where Uncle Alabi is accusing me of defrauding him. I keep explaining my own side of the story to as many people as possible that might care to listen. But everybody in our profession knows that the man is lying. There are people who didn’t know about the root of the crisis but who believed him and have kept spreading the false narrative. But I might not have access to everyone to keep explaining to them what exactly transpired.”

However, he said he does not regret helping a sick colleague even though his name was being dragged in the mud. He stated that everybody who knew Alabi’s condition before he intervened would attest to it that his magnanimity resuscitated the ailing actor. 

Disturbed by the ugly development and to ascertain what truly transpired between Alabi and Julius, a disciplinary committee was set up by the Lagos State chapter of the AGN. The committee was chaired by Mr. Charles Inojie while Mazi Sam Uche Anyamele was the secretary.

The report of the disciplinary committee, which was made available to the reporter by the president of the AGN, Mr Emeka Rollas, found Julius not culpable of the accusations levelled against him by Alabi.  

The report read: “The disciplinary committee, headed by Mr. Charles Inojie, who is a veteran, and other members who are of unquestionable character, received an indictment letter through the chairman, Don Pedro Aganbi, from Uncle Tunde Alabi against Mr. Paul Julius’ embezzlement of solicited funds during his treatment at the hospital. Thereafter, actions were taken from strategic meetings (online and offline) and investigations with witnesses called at different times to ascertain the truth.

“Thereon, the parties were called together for a face-to-face meeting and they both presented their cases fearlessly. At the meeting, Uncle Tunde Alabi did not deny having knowledge of all the transactions carried out on his behalf, especially as the bank account statement for the said period was made available.

“The accommodation fund was confirmed to have been transacted: a room-and-parlour self-contained at Jebba Street, off Apapa Road, Oyingbo, Lagos. Investigation shows that Uncle Tunde Alabi didn’t occupy the accommodation for over eight months because of his itineraries. It was further revealed that a balance amount of N100,000 was refunded by the landlord and paid directly to Uncle Alaba’s account, which he confirmed during the face-to-face meeting/ interrogation.

“The N150,000 for Mr. Paul Julius’ Abuja trip/programme that was used to take care of material for a jingle, editor’s payment, air ticket, accommodation and feeding, even though the Abuja programme was not successful as planned. The same jingle was used to generate money for Uncle Alabi in partnership with NTA Channel 10 Lagos, a programme exclusively anchored by Mr. Kunle Aborisade, and this lasted for months and funds generated into the same account.

“The position of the disciplinary committee as an impartial arbiter as of today is that it did not find the accused (Mr. Paul Julius) guilty, as all expenses and transactions carried out on behalf of the patient (Uncle Tunde Alabi) were to his outright knowledge and duly authorised with written evidence as presented. The accused (Mr. Julius), who also is not related to the patient, facilitated the generated funds and stood in for the family whilst the patient was forsaken for over 15 months.”

Other members of the committee according to Rollas, were: Mr. Alex Usifo, Mrs. Gloria Young, Mr. Tommy Oyewole, Miss. Ejiro Okurame, Mrs. Christy Okonkwo and Mrs. Amaka Ezeamaka.

Recalling how he was struck by an ailment, the 64-year-old man revealed that he had acted at the MUSON Centre on May 1, 2016, and everything went successfully. But he said it came to him as a shock when he discovered the following day that his mouth slightly shifted.

While he was just recovering from the ailment, he said he was yet again knocked down on July 19, 2016 by another disease. He was in his room at the Artists Village annex of the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, when his leg became swollen to an unimaginable size. He claimed that his sickness was a spiritual attack orchestrated by some of his colleagues who saw him progressing rapidly and collecting more jobs than others in the industry.

The actor lamented in November 2018 when the reporter visited him where he was squatting with a relative in Lagos that he had exhausted all the money he had saved after the sickness struck him on May 2, 2016.