Nollywood Loses Another Veteran Actor

The Nollywood industry is again grieving after the passing of Jonathan Ihonde, the dramatist and mind behind the TV series, Hotel de Jordan.

It was reported that he died around 10 am on Tuesday at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH).

The news of his passing was shared across different WhatsApp groups in Benin, the capital of Edo State.

The ace TV producer was a renowned and award-winning dramatist, writer, veteran Labour Union leader, social mobiliser, humanist, and consistent patriot.

He created one of the precursors of Nigerian Home Video, the Hotel de Jordan, in 1973, on Midwest Television (MTV), which later became NTA Benin, following the takeover of all television stations by the Federal Government.

Meanwhile, a former Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council, Godwin Erhahon, has described the death of Jonathan Ihonde as a great loss to the movie industry and the Labour Union movement.

Speaking in a telephone interview, Erhahon described the late veteran as a dramatist par excellence.

“We were very close. He was a dramatist par excellence. He was a labour leader to the core, who always served as a resource person at Labour Union conferences,” he said.

This is coming after the deaths of John Okafor, popularly known as Mr. Ibu, and Tolani Quadri Oyebamiji, popularly known as Sisi Quadri, earlier this month.