Nollywood actress and filmmaker Iyabo Ojo has publicly accused a Ghanaian television station, North East TV, of allegedly broadcasting her newly released movie, The Memory of You, without her permission.
The actress expressed shock after discovering that the film, which she said was released less than 24 hours earlier, was already being aired on television in Ghana.
Expressing her deep disappointment on her instagram page, she said:
“As you all know, I dropped the concluding part of my movie, The Memory of You, yesterday. So, I woke up this morning and, to my greatest surprise, I found out that a Ghanaian TV station called North East TV is showing my movie,” she said.
Describing the development as heartbreaking, Iyabo questioned why the station would allegedly broadcast a film without obtaining the necessary rights.
“This is so shocking. After going through the hard labour of producing a movie, from nowhere, you start showing my movie, which was just released, without my permission.
Why, North East TV Ghana, why are you pirating my movie?” she asked.
The actress lamented that producers invest enormous amounts of money into filmmaking, only for their work to allegedly be exploited without authorisation.
“I spent millions of naira on those movies, paying actors, locations, costumes, feeding, accommodation, and other production costs, and you want to water down my struggles?” she said.
Iyabo also claimed she had previously heard complaints from other producers about similar incidents but initially thought they were isolated cases.
“I heard you people, along with other TV stations, are doing it. I thought it was just a minor thing when other producers were complaining.
And later, when producers start talking and complaining, they gaslight us by saying we are chasing clout”,she stated.
Calling for intervention, the actress appealed to Ghanaian authorities, including the National Film Authority, the Minister of Arts and Culture, and President John Dramani Mahama, urging them to address what she described as an unfair situation affecting Nigerian filmmakers.
“Please, you people should look into this because it’s very unfair that Nigerians will be busy working hard to produce movies, and some people will sit in their corner in Ghana and be transmitting them on their local TV,” she said.
Iyabo ended her post with a stern warning to anyone allegedly airing her films without permission, insisting that The Memory of You Parts 1 and 2, along with any of her other movies, should not be broadcast without authorisation.
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