Nollywood actor Emeka Ike has called out ladies who enter relationships purely for financial gain, describing the practice as a "romantic scam."

The actor made the comments in a recent interview with BBC Pidgin.

According to him, some women go into relationships with the sole aim of raising money from their partners. He said this amounts to fraud, no matter how it's dressed up as love.

"Love and marriage are not a scam," he said. "But there are a few hungry people who are using relationships as meal tickets. That's where it becomes a scam."

Ike drew a line between genuine affection and financial motive. He said real love is beautiful when both parties are honest about their feelings, but turns into deception the moment one party has an agenda the other doesn't know about.

"Love is beautiful. If you find someone who genuinely likes you, it's very sweet. But when you are liking him or her for an end they are not aware of, that's a scam," he said.

He didn't stop there. Ike suggested that women looking to make money off relationships should consider street-begging instead.

"A lot of girls are going into relationships because of what they want to get from the man. They should just join street-begging instead of using relationships to raise money," he said.

The actor closed with a broader appeal for Nigerians to stop treating relationships as transactions.

"Relationship is supposed to be sacred. Love is the pillar of every good relationship. Let's stop messing it up in Nigeria. Let's stop pretending that we are in love just to raise money. Relationship shouldn't be a source of income," he said.