EricoShock and grief could best describe the expressions of TV3 Mentor 3 fans who watched the eviction of Greater Accra housemate, Erico in last Sunday’s show.

Known in private life as Eric Oduro, the 22-year-old sound engineer impressed both the judges and audience last Sunday with his version of Rev. Kusi Berko’s Edin Ben Ni but unfortunately failed to attract enough votes from the public to maintain him in the house for another week.

Considered as one of the best housemates in the reality show, Erico swept most of the crowd off their feet with his performance as he sang and played an accordion but the results proved that a contestant’s stay in the house was not based on his or her talent but on the number of SMS text votes he or she received from the public who contribute 70% whiles 30% goes to the judges.

Apart from the sadness and tears which could be seen on the faces of most of the studio audience a section of the public who spoke to Graphic Showbiz expressed similar feelings.

Linda Safoa Antwi, a student of Cape Coast University who was not in favour of Erico’s eviction, believed it was a planned publicity strategy adopted by the organisers to urge the public to vote.

“The same thing happened in Mentor 2 when Prince was evicted because the thought of seeing him go home prompted people to vote him back into the house and that is exactly what we are seeing here” she told this reporter.

Mrs Esther Somuah of Accra felt that Erico’s eviction was not fair since he performed better than other contestants that night.

“TV3 must review this 70%-30% voting system which favours the public more than the judges because it is causing undeserving housemates to be evicted.”

The young man’s eviction even caused people who were not fans of his to protest. Shirley Ahiamakor, a graphic designer, who is not an Erico fan said, “Personally I don’t like Erico because of his clumsy stage manners but I must admit that he has a good voice and didn’t deserve to leave.” she said.

However, Ms. Hawa Adama expressed a different view. “I am happy he has been evicted. I don’t like the way he jokes on stage just to amass support from the audience. He deserved to go”.

Erico gained popularity in Mentor 3 due to his funny dance moves on stage and his shouts of “Asoooo” which attracted a similar response from the audience.

Last Sunday saw the contestants perform both foreign and local gospel songs in the studio.

Nadjat and Paul failed to impress the judges with their respective performances of Diana Ross’s He Lives In Me as well as Isaac and Ampong’s Nyame Dome respectively but as presenter Anita Erskine put it “they have been given another chance to correct their mistakes by escaping that night’s eviction”.

Erico is the fifth to be evicted from the Mentor 3 house after Gina, Nana, Peter and K-Gee, but one of them stands a chance of being voted back in the next eviction-free show slated for this coming Sunday.

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