The organisers of the Nigeria Skits Industry Awards have postponed the event due to the death of the creative director and vice-chairman of the awards’ council, Joshua Olorunfemi.
The chairman of the awards council, Bimbo Daramola, noted that Olorunfemi’s death came as a huge shock. He said, “We commend members of the public who have waited with bated breath for the event as we had assured everyone of an experience of a lifetime. We had worked so hard and set the date of the awards for December 12, 2021, with venue secured and set construction ongoing. Sadly, fate played a rude and morbid joke on us by sneakily taking away our creative director and vice-chairman, Mr Joshua Olorunfemi, who was a super talented graphic artist and visualiser. His demise is a big loss to us as a team. It is for this reason that we have to regrettably postpone the ceremony, so that we can offer some comfort to his young family.
“It is noteworthy that Olorunfemi designed the four components of this initiative— the awards ceremony itself, the Industry Support Scheme, the Skitflix Platform and the Skits Festival.”
Apologising to guests who were already looking forward to the event, Daramola said, “We use this medium to sincerely apologise to our supporters—great young Nigerians who populate the industry; the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; royal fathers and other dignitaries who had cleared their diaries to be with us at the awards ceremony. In the meantime, we have decided to alter the name of this movement to now include two of the initiatives. It will henceforth be known as the Nigeria Skits Industry Festival and Awards. It will now be a whole day event that will start with the festival during the day and the awards ceremony at night.”
