Mo Abudu, Ebonylife CEO has reacted to accusations of copyright infringement by one Tobore Ovourie, over ‘Oloture’ movie.
Tobore Ovuorie had sometime last week accused Mo Abudu and the film’s producers of adapting her 2014 investigative report without getting her explicit permission.
Abudu, giving her side of the story on Instagram, said EbonyLife paid Premium times for the movie and also offered Tobore 5% out of cinema money for her contribution as a writer.
However, she warned that her production will not take likely threats from Tobore on media despite their earlier agreement.
She said: “Premium times said she cannot lay claim to the project, only Sam chronicles can claim copyright to the report, we do not take kindly to those saying otherwise.
“We dare not make a film without addressing rights and paying for them.
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“In May 2019, we reached out to Tobore and granted her a private screening and offered her 5% of our cinema rights to go to her NGO . ‘Oloture’ was an important movie but due to COVID-19 we could not release it.
“A day after Oloture was released on Netflix in October 2020, Tobore sent us a message and made accusations making demands and threatening us.”
However, Mo Abudu explained that before the release of the movie, she had a cordial relationship with Tobore and even sent her some money for her father’s burial and so on.
She stressed that her relationship with Tobore suddenly changed after the release of Oloture and its success on Netflix.
Abudu mentioned that Tobore immediately changed towards her, hired a lawyer and demanded for payment of N2.5bn which has lingered till now.
“A month after Oloture was launched we got a letter from her lawyer demanding a whooping sum of N2.5bn which is not what we signed up for.
“We knew we did not infringe on her rights we settled all that before the movie. Her demands have become threatening, blackmailing .
“My relationship with Tobore immediately changed after the growing popularity of Oloture on Netflix.
“Let me state for the record ‘Oloture’ is a story inspired by true events involving situations created by script writers , several parts of the films were created however some parts were similar to Tobore’s life which is why she and premium times were given credits,” she added.
Mo Abudu urged the public to educate themselves on how the movie industry works before being judgemental.
“Tobore’s experience is what most ladies experience due to trafficking worldwide. I stand for integrity, we did not exploit Tobore and would not be intimidated but fight in court if necessary,” she concluded.
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