Miss Nollywood 2016, Blessing Ogar, who resigned following the dethronement of her colleague, Miss Nollywood Culture and Tourism 2016, Grace Okoro Adaeze, says the pageant organizers are still indebted to her.
Blessing Ogar
We reported it here few weeks ago that the organisers of the Miss Nollywood Beauty Pageant publicly disgraced its Miss Nollywood Queen, Grace Okoro Adaeze over a disagreement. The announcement was made on their Facebook page.
According to information gathered, the dethronement was as a result of her unprofessional conduct. Shortly after the organisation dethroned Adaeze Grace, the successor, Blessing Ogar, who is assumed the throne, shockingly tendered her resignation.
In a chat with Punch's Saturday Beats, Blessing said she resigned because her prize money of N1m wasn’t given to her.
“I resigned some days back from the Miss Nollywood Beauty Pageant because I was tired of the whole drama and I had a reputation to keep. It took me this long to resign because most times, you do not just take drastic decisions in a hurry; you have to think deeply about what you want to do and take your time. You should not just resign like that till you are sure of what you want at the particular time.
“The main reason I resigned was because I was not given my N1m prize money. The only thing that was given to me by the organisers of the pageant was my tiara. After the pageant in December, I have not really had the time to communicate with the organisers because I was busy with my final year exams. I haven’t had the time to see them.
"I took the decision to resign because I saw that there was no need asking for the money because I did not see it coming. I felt instead of just sitting down doing nothing, no pet project or anything, I should just resign. When we discussed about the pet project, the organisers said I should do what I could and that meant I had to use my own money. Before I took the decision, I discussed with my family and friends; so it is no news to them because they gave me their support,” the ex-beauty queen said.
Recall that the dethroned queen, Grace Okoro Adaezehad, claimed she and other contestants were s*xually harassed by the organisers of the pageant.
But Blessing disclosed that the dethroned queen lied against the organisers as none of the contestants was s*xually harassed.
“The accusation Grace Adaeze made about the organisers trying to sleep with contestants of the pageant was not true. It is not also true that the organisers extorted money from her. I did not face any form of s*xual harassment as claimed by the dethroned queen,” she said.
Meanwhile, when Barakumo Odede, the organizer of the beauty pegeant, he gave reasons why Blessing had not received her prize money.
“We deal with a constitution as a law abiding organisation, so we don’t just do things anyhow. Our constitution says that every Nollywood queen is entitled to N1m as a budget to kick-start her pet project after signing the constitution of Miss Nollywood. The N1m shall be raised and provided through fundraisers, luncheons, and sponsors from government and private companies.
"We gave the queens the constitution to study for two days because we knew the problem they usually cause. Probably because of what they saw in the constitution, we have been begging them to return the constitution and sign it so that they can take charge of their various offices and begin their charity works, so we can work together.
"If you do not sign the constitution, you are only being crowned but you are not permitted to go to places. Up until this minute, we have been waiting for them to come and sign. I don’t know if Blessing has signed the constitution but I am waiting for them to bring it back so that they can operate. She has no right to use the crown for any purpose until the constitution has been signed by her.
"Everything we do, we follow procedure. Most of them have not returned the signed constitution and that was one of the reasons we dethroned Adaeze. Blessing has not also returned her signed constitution,” he said.
