By Tofarati Ige
Just like a kaleidoscope, there are many sides to the actor born James Ikechukwu Okolue but popularly known as Jim Iyke.
He has been labelled a bad boy, violent, cheat and serial heartbreaker. Indeed Jim Iyke’s career is littered with many women who have been linked to the actor at one time or the other.
When Jim first shot into prominence in the Nigerian movie industry, it seemed no romantic movie (and we had quite a number of them those days) was complete without casting him and pretty actress, Rita Dominic, as lovers.
Of course, their numerous onscreen dalliances fuelled endless stories about their off-screen romance, which the duo has always denied.
Rita Dominic once stated in an interview that one of the rumours that hurt her most was when it was reported that she was dating Jim Iyke and that she was seen sneaking out of his room. According to her, “I’m not denying the fact that Jim and I are good friends. If you ask him if he could add somebody else to his family, he would add me to his family, likewise me. To me, you can have a best friend that is a guy and there’s nothing happening between you. It’s just a pity that here when they see you guys talking or playing, they say you guys are going out.”
However, just as news of the couple dating refused to die, Jim Iyke was enmeshed in another scandal when it was alleged that he duped his Abuja-based lover, one Habiba Abubakar who he conned into investing N15m in his company. It was further said that after Abubakar paid the money, Jim refused to fulfil his own part of the bargain, but instead, he beat up the hapless women when she asked him to return her money.
She eventually dragged him before an Abuja Magistrate Court, and Jim had to bail himself with N500,000 at the height of the crisis.
This is even as there are numerous reports of scorned lovers who felt betrayed by Jim Iyke and accused him of duping them. One of Jim’s victims (names withheld) once told this writer that duping his lovers of their hard-earned money seems to be his stock-in-trade, as he usually comes up with different projects that he always pestered his lovers to invest in, and if they eventually invested, they never got returns.
Many have also argued that the many women in Jim Iyke’s life are all part of a script to always keep the actor in the news.
Little wonder then that his reality show, Unscripted featured Jim’s Jaimacan ex-fiancée, Keturah Hamilton, as one of the main attractions.
Meanwhile, Keturah, who is a model, alleged that her appearance on the reality show was all scripted. A statement she released shortly after the show was aired reads in part, “Keturah Hamilton, model, actress, and ex-fiancée of Jim Iyke is ready to tell the real story after the Jim Iyke Unscripted show that was aired on April 17, 2013. In a world where reality shows are an “In-thing” and bad behaviour becomes the A.M. topic to cover, leave it to Jim Iyke ‘Unscripted’ or better said the ‘scripted’ show to deliver real-life drama…Keturah Hamilton had acted out an edgy script of jealousy and rage towards Jim Iyke, that was delivered as well as any actress in Hollywood. Keturah was so good that even her fans were astonished to see how well she acted and was able to challenge Jim on his bad behaviour.
“Boldly, Jim gave Keturah the opportunity to exit the reality show based on the controversial episode. Even though a pre-recorded version of “Kiss and Make-up” was on stand-by to be aired, Keturah already had made her decision. For the time being, Jim Iyke and Keturah Hamilton are no longer together because in reality, Jim’s bad boy behaviour was just too overwhelming for the reality star. Keturah has decided to move on to the bigger and better things that her heart has long been looking to do.”
However, the latest Jim Iyke script on women is Ghanaian actress, Nadia Buari, who he has named ‘Skittles,’ while she calls him ‘Space.’
The two actors paraded themselves on social media and at red-carpet events as love-sick individuals for over a year, and even though some of their fans believe that the couple have truly been struck by cupid’s arrow, others believe that it’s a poorly scripted real-life drama.
Nadia recently birthed twin girls, and this further puts a lie to the make-belief romance between her and Jim, as the actress has come out to say that Jim is not the father of her newborn girls. It was also reported in some sections of the media that Nadia’s baby-daddy is someone she actually went to university with.
Nadia’s mom, Caddy posted a picture on Instagram of Nadia with a fair-skinned man whose face was not shown, but ‘Nadia Buari’ was tattooed on the back of his neck. She captioned the picture, “I’m totally obsessed with how he’s obsessed with her.”
Indeed, Jim Iyke has ‘conquered’ more than his fair share of belles, and even his fans have grown weary of waiting for him to walk down the aisle.
However, the good news is that Jim says he has been delivered at Prophet TB Joshua’s Synagogue from the demon responsible for his inability to get married.
Hopefully, he will make an honest woman out of his numerous girls in the near future.
