The Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, has issued a July 12 ultimatum for the producers of Gangs of Lagos, and Amazon Prime Video to remove the image and manifestation of the Eyo masquerade in the film.
The film, which was produced, directed, and edited by Jade Osiberu and Kemi Lala Akindoju, was made available on Prime Video on April 7, 2023.
Since the film’s debut, it has drawn criticism for portraying the Eyo masquerade as the “first gang of Lagos,” among other things.
Oba Akiolu in a press statement described the movie as a defamatory and sacrilegious one, which inflicted huge reputational damage on the Eyo brand.
The statement read in part, “I am the custodian and final authority of the Adimu Orisa and its manifestation— the Eyo. These traditional rites are the tangible and intangible property of the indigenes of Lagos.
“This cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artefacts and intangible attributes, that have been inherited from past generations for over 200 years, maintained in the present by the Oba of Lagos, and bestowed for the benefit of future generations.
“These traditions express our way of life and thought. They are proof of our intellectual and spiritual achievements. They must not be used without the indigenous owners’ express permission, or desecrated in any way whatsoever”.
Recall that on June 28, Oba Akiolu asked that the portrayal and manifestation of Eyo be taken out of the film in a three-page letter to Osiberu’s Greoh Studios and Amazon Web Service.
He charged the producers of exploiting the Eyo’s image for profit without the oba’s office’s consent or proper acknowledgement.
Akiolu had copied many people, including Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos State, Barbara Scarafia, the vice president of Amazon Web Services in Luxembourg, the president of the Isale-Eko Descendants Union, and Olasupo Shasore, SAN, a lawyer in Lagos.
The letter read in part, “Immediately remove and cease from using the image get up and manifestation of the Adimu Orisa — The Eyo — in your film, Gangs of Lagos. Submit within 14 days a proposal for consideration— for the restitution of the sanctity of the Eyo; provide within 14 days’ compensatory proposal for the infringement of our intellectual property rights in our cultural heritage which you have commercially exploited without license; submit within 14 days a draft of an appropriately worded apology to the Oba and indigenous people of Lagos.”
The ultimatum would expire on July 12 after 14 days.
It should be noted that the Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Uzamat Akinbile-Yussuf, the Isale Eko Descendants’ Union, and other notable actors, such as Jide Koskoko, had at various times disapproved of the film’s depiction of the Eyo masquerade.
