Actress Georgina Onuoha has condemned the alleged assault and public humiliation of filmmaker Don Pedro Obaseki, describing the incident as painful and unacceptable.
Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, Georgina shared a photo of Obaseki and reacted to a video showing him being dragged through the streets of Benin City.
“This morning I woke up to a video of Don Pedro Obaseki being dragged through the streets of Benin City and it broke me,” she wrote.
She described Obaseki as a respected figure in Nigeria’s creative and cultural space.
“Don Pedro Obaseki is not just a director. He is an oracle in the Nigerian arts industry. A custodian of culture. A man who carried the history and dignity of the Benin people across generations,” she said.
Georgina recalled working with Obaseki in the early 2000s on his stage production Obaseki.
“I had the privilege of working with him in the early 2000s on his stage play Obaseki, alongside RMD (Richard Mofe-Damijo) @mofedamijo and Stella Damasus @stelladamasus where I played Ebosa, the youngest wife the king. That production shaped who I am as a stage actor,” she wrote.
Reacting to the incident, she said, “To see this same man treated like a criminal by thugs is shameful, barbaric, and unacceptable.”
She added, “Nigeria is a democracy. People have the right to speak. They have the right to disagree without being publicly humiliated and dehumanized.”
Calling for action, she wrote, “I call on the Edo State Government, the DSS, and the Nigerian Government: arrest and prosecute everyone involved. This is not just about Don Pedro Obaseki. It is about our culture, our dignity, and our national conscience.
“I am pained. I am angry. And no one with a conscience should be silent. This injustice must not stand.”
Obaseki had earlier alleged that he was attacked while playing football in Benin City, beaten, stripped naked and dragged to the palace of the Oba of Benin by men who claimed they were sent by the monarch. He said, “I was stripped naked and taken into the palace of the Oba of Benin… I have never been so humiliated,” adding, “I am traumatised, I am distraught.”
