One death too many in Nollywood as another actress dies

This is certainly not the best of times for the Nigerian film industry, as there has been a steady blight of death in the industry, especially in the Yoruba genre of the sector.

Just as stakeholders are trying to live with the reality of the painful exits of Olumide Bakare and Samuel Adesanya, popularly known as Pastor Ajidara in April and May respectively, another Nollywood actress, in the same Yoruba genre has passed on.

The latest victim, Moji Olaiya has been reported dead. She was 42 years old.

Multiple sources said she died of heart attack in Canada, where she gave birth to a baby girl in March. The baby was her second child. Her first daughter is 18 years old.

The beautiful actress, who had featured in many Yoruba and English movies married her second husband last year after the first one crashed in 2008.

She was the daughter of highlife music legend, Victor Olaiya. She was born in February 1975.

This brings to three the numbers of deaths recorded in the industry alone in just two months.

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First, it was Veteran Yoruba movie actor Olumide Bakare, who died after a long battle with sickness on April 21. Samuel Adesanya, popularly called Pastor Ajidara, followed suit in on April 7.

Adesanya, who was 62, was said to have died of kidney failures in the early hours of Sunday.

Mr. Adesanya’s family had two days earlier called for financial support of N12million from the public, following his doctor’s recommendation that he would need a kidney transplant to survive.

Ironically, Mr. Adesanya was owed about N4 million by the Ogun State government as a retiree of Ogun State Judiciary. He retired from the service on July 2, 2015‎ but was yet to get his retirement benefit till he died.