Why Tonto, Mercy are fighting dirty...The Asaba angle

One of Nigerian most controversial actresses, Tonto Dikeh’s recent tweet-cum-attack on fellow actress, Mercy Johnson, has continued to generate frenzy, especially on social media.

The actress had on Tuesday, July 9, tweeted thus: “When and if I give birth, God please provide me with a husband that can provide for us, not the one that would send me back to acting two months after to hustle.”

Earlier, the Rivers State-born actress-cum-‘wannabe singer’ had tweeted that “Nollywood brides marry horribly.” All her copious rants on twitter were however, obviously directed to Mercy Johnson, who on December 2012 gave birth to a bouncing baby girl-Purity-shortly after she returned to location to continue her career-a bounce back that was widely reported.
Irked by Dikeh’s attack on one of their most admired faces on the screen, the online fans of the Kogi State-born actress lashed and further engaged Dikeh in a twitter war. As the ‘war’ raged, the controversial actress threw decency to the wind as she dropped the bigger bombshell: “Everyone who comes to my tweeter handle to rant about your fool MJ is a bigger bastard than her, because I never called no naughty lady’s name. F**k you!”
With this, the queen of controversy did not only refer to Mercy as a fool, but also called her a naughty bastard.  As if that was not hurtful enough, she further took another direct shot at the mother of one: “Naughty lady. She lost her name and wants to use me as a comeback. Never! Go and nurse your witch bitch.”
However, while many observers, especially Mercy’s fans were expecting her to retaliate with a wrath, MJ, as she is fondly called, simply and diplomatically replied, via twitter: “Good morning sweets. Hope you all are good? Off to work. Mama Purity loves you all. Have a blessed day filled with love.”
The “off to work,” as understood by many, is obviously a ‘go to hell’ response, proving to her warring colleague she does not give a damn about what she (Tonto) thinks.
Apart from many Nigerians, especially MJ’s fans who have openly defended Mercy, while hitting back at Dikeh, for evidently being too rude on a colleague, Nollywood actor, Nonso Diobi, Peter Okoye’s baby mama, Lola Omotayo, among other celebrities have also lambasted Tonto, for calling MJ and her baby unthinkable names.
“A woman has a baby and willingly goes back to work; why question her decision or even suggest that she was forced to go back to work?” Omotayo, the mother-of-two wrote.
“Just because she went back to work two months after delivery doesn’t make you better than her. Learn to respect people’s decision. She has a happy home and a happy man, so don’t spoil it with your negative words…wonder what beef you had with her in the first place,” Diobi tweeted via his twitter handle-@nonsodiobiworld. 
“You don’t always have to trend in a negative way, you can’t disrespect your colleague and expect to be respected. The industry is big enough to accommodate everybody, so why hate your fellow colleague, it’s not a competition,” he further attacked. 
Like Diobi rightly asked, what really are Tonto and MJ quarreling about? What is the source of their unending brawl? And why do we have similar rampant cases in the industry?
The duo, for many years have remained cat and rat. In 2012, Tonto tweeted that the only actress she respects is Uche Jombo. In another tweet, she said she had got so much love for Rita Dominic. Following these confessions, a curious fan had asked her about Mercy Johnson, a question she responded thus: “Fuck you and Mercy Johnson.”
Entertainment Express’ investigations revealed that their beef is not unconnected with the competition for scripts nay fame, especially in Asaba, many years back. Inside sources disclosed that Mercy had an edge over Tonto, hence was always having more jobs than her, a situation that within the period generated intense rift among them.  “Tonto has never liked Mercy. Starting from when Nollywood started shifting ground to Asaba, Mercy was always in hot demand, which obviosuly made Tonto to begin seeing her as a competitor. This, among other things combined to make them impenitent enemies,” the source, who is a stakeholder in the industry disclosed.     
With a growing reputation for devil-may-care roles and a bohemian lifestyle as a tattoo and marijuana addict, the 27-year old Dikeh has become an obsession with many movie fans since she set tongues wagging with her provocative performance in the 2009 “Dirty Secret,” a movie with soft porn elements.
She doesn’t just stir controversies; she thrives on it. When she is not drunk and falling on stage, then it is the news of her weird tattoos, display of Marijuana on twitter, romance with Iyanya, among other controversial activities.

By JAMES EMMANUEL