If Omoni Oboli had known that the premiere of her movie, ‘Okafor’s Law,’ would be stopped in a most embarrassing manner, maybe she would have taken Jude Idada seriously. At the moment, the Canadian-based script writer, who alleged that Oboli stole her story without crediting him, is having the last laugh.
The issue, which should have been sorted out amicably, has become messy and a battle. Perhaps, Oboli did make attempts but they held no water. The issue first came up in September 2016, and Oboli firmly defended her ownership of the script, stating that she owned and wrote it 100 per cent.
However, Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos last week issued an Anton Piller order, directing the seizure of a film. The court also issued an interim order, suspending the release and launch of the film, in any movie theatre or cinema house pending the determination of a motion on notice before the court.
On Friday, March 25, when everyone was already seated at Filmhouse IMAX, Lekki, Lagos, after the cocktail preceding the screening of the movie, they were later told the movie could not be shown again. Idada’s court order didn’t just stop the premiere, it also stopped the release of the movie this Friday.
Oboli was served the court injunction at the venue of the premiere. And in spite of all the preparations, resources put together to have a befitting premiere, she was forced to obey the court injunction by cancelling the premiere. If she had gone ahead with the premiere, there was a risk of being charged with contempt.
Like myself, a film producer, Chima Okereke, had blamed Omoni Oboli for allowing her accuser to procure a court order to stop the premiere of her new movie.
Oboli was simply careless.
She went ahead to set March 31, as a release date for the movie, in spite of a demand letter sent to her, as well as a copyright infringement suit instituted.
Okereke said it would have been a forgotten issue if the case was nipped in the bud through their association, but Oboli called Idada’s bluff and went ahead to shoot the controversial film.
“There are procedures in handling this kind of case and both sides, especially Oboli, missed the point. It is now fight to finish and that is not good for a producer. Nollywood is a big beneficiary of this case; writers now see what they can do when their intellectual property rights are breached. Producers now understand the implication of minor mistakes; distributors will now be more circumspect of controversially produced films.”
Though I don’t know the steps she must have taken, I also believe there were many options she could have considered and both parties would have smiled home. One of them is seeking the help of other respected industry practitioners to mediate, identify the problems and solve them. If Idada didn’t want to listen to her, he would have listened to certain people.
For those who think Oboli could do no wrong, there is no need to be sentimental about the situation. We must understand that intellectual property theft is real and people go unpunished many times in this part of the world, especially if the victims are weak.
Since the person is weak financially and has no one to fight for him, in most cases, he leaves everything in the hands of God. But in this case, Idada is not weak. He is based in Canada and must be well-informed about intellectual property theft.
Idada must have presented a sort of evidence for an injunction to be given to him. This is protection of rights of every citizen and everyone deserves it.
Now, everyone wants to see how Oboli intends to fight back in the court of law. She has to counter the evidence provided by Idada, as her integrity is now in question. While the battle is ongoing too, she risks the possibility of losing all the money spent on the movie.
In ‘Okafor’s Law,’ Oboli features stars like Richard Mofe Damijo, Toyin Aimakhu, Blossom Chukwujekwu, Ken Erics, Yvonne Jegede, Halima Abubakar, Gabriel Afolayan and Funke Bucknor.
