Emeka Ike, a Nollywood actor, is being accused of issuing a bounced cheque to winners of a local football competition he organised at the Sandfill field at Ogudu Ori-oke area of Lagos on the December 24, 2012.

The former Actors Guild of Nigeria president had said the aim of hosting the tournament football tournament tagged ‘Emeka Ike Desert Cup’ was to help young talented footballers discover their talent and thereby reduce crime rate in Nigeria, however, the winners lament that he is yet to keep his promises.

A total of sixteen schools picked around Lagos State participated in the tournament after paying N3000 registration fee each. Out of the sixteen schools, Emeka promised to reward the best three teams. With the winner going away with N500,000, the second with N100,000 and the third place winner with N75,000.

He had also claimed that Tottenham and Togolese striker, Emmanuel Adebayo, had agreed to assist some talents to be identified at the football tournament, and that some major clubs in Europe were sending scouts to the tournament.

He had also included that Kanu Nwankwo and the Minister of Sport, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi will be their special guests of honour but at the event, Daddy Showkey was the only celebrity present.

Golden Star team were the overall winner, with Lakeside team and All Stars team from Oworonshoki coming second and third place.

Lakeside and All Stars team collected their cash prize in January while the cheque issued to the overall winner, Golden Stars, has consistently bounced.

Nigerian Telegraph visited the winning team and the coach, Afolabi Thomas, confirmed that Emeka Ike has refused to keep to his promise.

Thomas, who has been the team’s coach for some years, said that Emeka has refused to pay the money he promised and that all efforts to reach him via phone or sms had not been successful.

The sponsor of the team, Mr. Okeke, expressed belief that Emeka used the “fake” sponsorship for his own publicity and to get the sports Ambassador for the newly launched Federal Government ‘RYTHYM and PLAY’ project, as he (Emeka) does  not know anything concerning football or sports.

“We had to contact our lawyer when Emeka kept on giving us different dates(2nd, 14th, 26th of May and 11th june) to pay us our money,” he said.

Afolabi Thomas added that the actor has been threatening them to make them withdraw their publication in the media.

“We did not go to the press to tarnish Emeka’s image but we just wanted the world to hear what happens to grassroot football team,” Afolabi noted.

More here>>>
http://telegraphng.com/2013/06/grassroots-football-team-lament-actors-failed-promises/

Keep "acting" aside, most of these so-called celebrities are wolves in sheep clothing. Hanks Anuku's mental state is a case study. Emeka Ike might jux be a 419ner.......who knows!!!