May 18, (THEWILL) – Nollywood actress Chioma Toplis has dismissed claims that fellow Nollywood practitioners neglected late Leo Mezie when he was ill.
Leo, who had been battling a kidney ailment for some years, died last Saturday while recovering from surgery. He was 46 years-old.
Shortly after the actor passed on, many of his colleagues came under attack for allegedly neglecting him during his battle with the ailment. But in a statement posted on Instagram on Tuesday, Toplis took a swipe at those pushing such narrative.
According to her, several Nollywood figures and some concerned individuals made cash donations to the actor when he fell sick.
Toplis wrote, “Leo cried Wolf when there was no wolf. When the real wolf came, nobody came to his aid. This is for people saying that Nollywood didn’t help Leo when he was ill, those blaming Nollywood for his death.
“In 2016, money was contributed to his surgery, including the large sum of money that Apostle gave him.
“He came to London with his former wife for the surgery. Another actress, who was in London at the time, and I contacted him so we could visit him in the hospital, but he did not allow us to see him.
“Later he returned to Nigeria and didn’t look like someone who just had a major surgery. He organised a huge thanksgiving service at the Apostle’s church where he claimed to have been miraculously healed.
“He said his failed kidneys were revived in London and the doctors there said that he didn’t need surgery. People then wondered who then diagnosed him and booked the surgery for which a lot of money was donated.”
Toplis claimed that people were discouraged from helping the actor when they realised that “he was enjoying the money he was making out of his illness”.
“He continued living his normal life till news broke through actress Chioma Okoye’s NGO that he was ill again and needed donations. Money was contributed to an extent before he asked the foundation to give him the money. The quarrel started between him and the foundation,” she added.
She said it was not the custom of the foundation to give or contribute money to individual accounts. At this point, a lot of people lost interest. Even the AGN president, Emeka Rollas, intervened in the matter just to make sure it was resolved. A lot of actors posted and solicited funds for him, too.
“ I believe that these comment-seyy people (keyboard warriors) talking down on the Actors Guild are not aware of the story of Leo and his health or they just want to give a dog a bad name to kill it.
“Like I said, a lot of people lost interest in his case, even the Apostle that helped him more than anyone else. The plain truth is that he was enjoying the money he was making out of his illness. His wife left him and relocated to the United States when she got a visa.
“His family and extended family members took over and helped him with dialysis, and raised the sum of N17m for the transplant, which was done about a week ago.”
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