It was the gathering of veteran actors at the Silverbird Cinema where the short screening of Oloibiri (Revenge Has Come) took place.
The biggest and well packaged action thriller, conveys fear, dread, international exploitation, governmental irresponsibility and unseen benefits of desperate hope. Award winning actor Olu Jacobs, seasoned thespian and politician, Richard Mofe Damijo, William R. Moses of the CSI’s ‘Touched by an Angel’ fame, internationally acclaimed actress Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, Ivie Okujay and Ifeanyi Williams all starred in this blockbuster and were on hand to speak to the media on the importance of the yet-to-be-released movie at a press conference in Abuja.
The movie set in a remote village in Bayelsa State and based on Nigeria’s Niger Delta town of Oloibiri which is Nigeria’s first point of crude oil discovery in January 1956 was produced by Rogers Ofime.
The director-general of Nigerian Film and Videos Censors Board (NFVCB), Patricia Bala, said the full clips of the movie needed to be watched by the board before it could rate it, adding that the board being on ground at the brief screening did not mean the film had been endorsed.
Olu Jacobs who played the role of Old Timipre, described the movie as an innovation in Nollywood and called on other producers to put in more efforts in further popularize the industry. ‘I am delighted to be in this movie. This is a race that I’m happy to be part of. When I read the character, the affinity, I knew the movie was great and we got the opportunity of working with the best in the industry. If you are a good actor there’s no way you will say the movie is difficult. It’s clear and precise and the crew also made it easy for all of us. I never doubted the producers because I believe they are doing a great job’ he said.
In her words, Taiwo Ajayi-Lycet who stars as Ibere said the movie would show how people go through suffering in Oloibiri and the neglect and corruption going on in the area of Niger Delta.
“I tried to draw attention of our young ones in the Niger Delta to the fact that it’s not even about the guns, it’s the sensitivity, corruption that has actually turned them into what they are. The problem is that we want change but nobody wants to die for Nigeria. My boys and I sacrifice ourselves. The Niger Delta people also sacrifice themselves. If we want things to change then we really need to put our heads together as one,” she said.
Also, Richard Mofe Damijo (RMD) said he’s overwhelmed by the quality of the cast and crew adding the movie would pave way for greater things to come for Nollywood. He also stressed the need to set up a special tribunal to handle cases of piracy in the country if the war against piracy to won.
According to him, “the existing law is good, what we probably recommend is speedy dispensation of justice, or maybe they set up special tribunal sometimes to handle cases of piracy and also to step up the punishment and the compensation for piracy, because right now it’s too low to be even be significant.”
He pointed out that the movie Oloibiri was very well done, stressing that it does not in any way violates any sensitivity, or portray anything that is violent. “I’m excited to take another kind of persona in Oloibiri. Though I didn’t have a girlfriend in the script but my mum was my babe in the movie. My pursuits are my aims and the plight of my people is my drive,” he noted.
The plot of the movie hangs around the villainy character of Gunpowder (Mofe-Damijo), an angry youth, obsessed with seeking vengeance for Oloibiri people. He is bent on symbolically cleansing Oloibiri land with the blood of its traitors as a way of procuring justice.
