4 yrs after J.T Tom West's death,producer opens up

Until recently, not many people could reckon with the producer of
that film that led to the accident that claimed the life of one of
Nollywood star-actors, J.T. Tom West, some four years ago.
Tom-West was involved in a fatal auto-accident, while he was
returning from a location after a late night film shooting with two
of his colleagues.
The producer of that film that never saw the light of the day was
Mr. Michael Ofuonye, in collaboration with his UK partner, Teddy
Sir Moris. He recently relived memories of the circumstances that
led to the death of that talented actor turned dancer and singer.
Ofuonye, speaking for the first time in
four years said Tom West died as a
result of internal bleeding, contrary to
media reports that he was shot dead,
as they were alleged to be shooting the
movie with live bullets.
Recounting that ugly incident, Ofuonye
said he lost millions of naira as a result
of that tragic incident.
Ofuonye, who is now working with a
private television station, MCL, based
in Aba, Abia State, regretted that even
though he was made to contribute for
the burial rites of Tom -West, the
production that led to the unfortunate
incident did not see the light of the day.
Worse still, rather than recouping the millions of naira he invested
in the production, having hired XX camera from CNN, another
heartless producer, according to him, cashed in on the incident
that disrupted the production to make a fortune out of his
abandoned project by stealing the title of that movie, “Why?” to
produce a similar movie.
“The millions of naira I invested into the production went down
the drain, and, as if that was not enough, someone else shot a
movie with the same title, ‘Why?” The movie sold out, and people
were wondering what happened to my own movie. Tom West
wasn ’t in that movie. I went to the censors board to register a
complain, all to no avail,”said Ofuonye, who was in Lagos,
recently where HVP ran into him.
Frustrated, however, Ofuonye said he joined the movie industry
mainly to inspire a positive change, especially in the area of
improving the picture quality of our movies. As he narrated, “I
discovered that our picture quality then was very poor and
couldn ’t make any international film festival.”
He expressed disappointment in his colleagues, saying they could
not bring him out of his dilemma. However, after that incident
which took a toll on him, Ofuonye has moved on with his
production, shooting two movies, “Angel of Light” and
“Comrade”, in quick succession.
The movies, according to him, were taken to international film
festivals such as the Berlin Film Festival. Unfortunately, as he
lamented, the films, especially ‘Comrade” until now, has not
secured approval from the censors board.