Tony Umez Pays the Price For Fame To Fans And Armed Robbers.

Tony Umez and daug.

Stardom has a price that every celeb has had to pay.  Tony Umez, one of the very few actors in steady and private celebrity marriage [he has been married for more than 11 years, precisely married to Patsy Ogochukwu in 1999 after their five years courtship - yes that long. His wife was forced to play Mrs. Pascal role in a move which he was playing the husband Pascal after the a female friend to play the role didn't show up]
The actor has found himself in the most bizarre of situation with fans as he has had fans on several occasions demand money or threaten to ‘destroy some thing’, In a recent interview, ‘ [Fans] would hail you and say that you are better than Jesus Christ; that you will never give birth to children like them and all those things. They clear the road for you, but there are some who would tell you the amount of money to give them” and every single time he has had to part with money close to over NGN10,000 [ten thousand naira] in several situations.
Recounting an armed robbery attack that his status as a star actor didn’t help. “As I was about coming out of the car to get the attention of the security person, three young men, opened the door very well for me. One was pointing a gun at me, the first thing that came to my mind was: why are you doing this to me, don’t you know me?” Tony Umez was on his way back from a late night meeting with former CBN governor Charles Soludo last year.The meeting ended after 12midnight, he got to the gate leading to the street where he lived and found it locked at about 1:30AM as he was about to step out of the car to call the attention for the security men, he was approached and attacked by three armed robbers. He was rob of his jewelery, ten thousand naira and asked to lie down which he refused to. ” I told myself that If I lie on the ground, it means I will be lying face down he could shoot me at the back of my head, but if I stand he could shoot my body and by sheer luck, I could survive.”
He got scared and begged for his life but he was instead punched in the eye by one of them. They took his cell phone and every other item he had on him then got on a motorcycle and sped off.
“My wife said she had a premonition of what happened but she just couldn’t tell me to stay where I was.“, Tony said after he found his car keys on the ground, drove home and told his wife of the experience he describes as ‘unforgettable’.
Meanwhile, Fame has not been all negative: “You go to the bank, they give you some preference; you walk into a place that is a no go area, they allow you to move.” Tony informed.