Veteran Ghanaian actress, Adjoa Pee, is not taking matters cool with movie producer and CEO of Pointblank Media Consult, Theo Akatugba, as she has vowed to use him as a scapegoat to teach Ghanaian producers to desist from taking actors and actresses for a ride.
Adjoa, BEATWAVES has gathered, wants to institute a court action against Mr. Akatugba for his refusal to pay her for roles she played in two of his productions: ‘Broadway’ and ‘Beyond The Rivers’.
According to Adjoa, Akatugba owes her over GH¢1000. Last week, she was reported to have broken the news on Abeiku Santana’s Efie-Kwanso programme on Adom FM.
Last Thursday, she told BEATWAVES that it was true that she wanted to take the matter to court. “I called my lawyer and he asked me to bring the contract. I have also reported the case to the President of the Actors’ Guild and have also seen the Guild’s lawyer and showed the contracts him.
They promised to take the matter up. Producers have cheated us for far too long and it is about time we did something to bring them to book,†she said. Mr. Nii Odoi Mensah also confirmed this, saying that the lawyer was still studying the case and so they were waiting for his advice to proceed.             ÂÂ
Adjoa told this paper that Akatugba was supposed to have paid GH¢700 for her roles in over 20 scenes in ‘Broadway’ but he only gave her GH¢100 before she left for USA in 2007.
After she returned to Ghana, the Director of Akatugba’s new production, ‘Beyond The River’, called and asked her to see Akatugba for the next production, which she did.
She was then given a minor role in the new production with a contracted fee of GH¢400; but she was subsequently given a more difficult major role. Hence, she asked Akatugba to double the sum in their earlier contract.
But when she went to Akatugba’s office for them to discuss the new amount for the role she had been given, she did not meet him; so she went on with the production hoping that after the production, Akatugba would do something about her fee.
After the production, she waited for two months and called him so they could discuss the issue of the fee but Akatugba started telling her stories about poor production and that he was even going to slash the original GH¢400 fee.
That was what got her angry, hence her decision to take him on.
According to the weekly Fylla, “When Mr. Akutagba was called on air on Adom FM to react to the claims, he did not deny not paying the actress and said he did not understand why the issue was being discussed on air.
He had a little difficulty driving his message through as to why he did not pay the actress and cut the line after saying ‘I don’t think I’m ready to go on with this discussion; I’m sorry’.â€Â
Adjoa P used to model for Joy Ride, Weekend Advisor and Super Agede magazines and as well starred in Osofo Dadzie. Adjoa P who is otherwise called Adjoa Pieterson has been acting since 1986.
Her first appearance on television was as a dancer in a programme on GTV called Weekend Rendezvous, produced by the late Adwoa Abankwah-Duodo.
She starred in such productions as ‘Passing Cloud,’ ‘Carless Bang,’ ‘Mataa Our Missing Children,’ ‘On Woman’s Mind,’ ‘Gift of Life,’ ‘Raise The Flag’ and ‘Office Romance’ which was done in the USA among others.
By Francis Addo