*Yanks her COVID-19 promo video off website
After throwing a rowdy birthday house party amid calls for social distancing due to the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country, the Nigeria Centre Disease Control, NCDC, has on Sunday parted ways with it Ambassador Nollywood Actress, Funke Akindele-Bello.
This is also coming even as the Agency yanked off her COVID-19 promo video from its website following the development.
iBrandTV gathered that NCDC has a partnership deal with Dettol to run Clean Naija initiative campaigns for them.
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it also gathered that Funke Akindele is a brand ambassador for Dettol and a major driver of the Clean Naija initiative.
The initiative is geared towards creating awareness, educate and drive behavioural change among Nigerians in order to achieve a cleaner nation through the continuous habit of handwashing.
With the outbreak of the pandemic, which could be prevented with regular washing of hands, Akindele has appeared in adverts campaigning for people to keep good hygiene.
However, the NCDC through the media aide to its Director-General, Emeka Oguanuo, in a chat with iBrandTV said: “Funke Akindele action was not in line with our mandate and it will not be okay if we continue to allow her to run the clean initiative for us.
“We have yanked her COVID-19 Promo on our website and we will not allow her to appear on any of our activity as we remain focused on delivering the message of total isolation and social distancing,” Emeka said.
Akindele’s rapper husband, Abdulrasheed Bello otherwise known as JJC Skillz, had shared videos from the house party on his Instagram Story.
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The couple lives at Amen Estate in Lagos State which happens to be among the three states where President Muhammadu Buhari had declared a 14-day lockdown to help control the spread of Coronavirus in the country.
The 42-year-old actress was believed to have thrown the party to celebrate her husband’s 43 birthday on Saturday.
But Akindele, who had done jingles on Coronavirus awareness for the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), was criticised by fans and other Nigerians on Twitter for disregarding various directives and medical advisory for members of the public to maintain social distancing to avoid spreading the virus.
the actress responded to a Nigerian who stated that losing her endorsement may be as a result of “plain stupidity” and not a matter of “witch hunt”, said:
“Uncle don’t create an unnecessary sensation. #omoghettothesaga was to be filmed Before the lockdown and some of us had been camped in Amen estate.
“So we had to stay in there. So we are safe and happy!! Let’s not be NEGATIVE!!”
“We all have been together for over two weeks. We are safe and take all precautions”.
