‘Boko Haram’ producer freed

John Dada Adedayo, the producer of a new film titled Boko Haram, who was put before court for not passing his movie through the Ghana Cinematograph Exhibition Board of Control before it was released on the market, has finally been set free at the instance of the very Board that caused his arrest.

If Adedayo had been convicted, he would have been, perhaps, the first filmmaker to have been so convicted on that charge. Since the court remanded him in prison custody while the trial lasted, many filmmakers were virtually holding their breaths and praying that their colleague would not be imprisoned.

The film, which features the award-winning Ghanaian actor Majid Michel in the lead role, tells the story of Nigeria and her problems with the Islamist Boko Haram sect.

The accused person was put before a court presided over by Audrey Kocuvie-Tay and charged for refusing to subject himself to censorship laws, but he denied any wrongdoing.

Narrating events leading to the arrest of the accused person, the prosecutor, DSP Cletus Abadamloora said the complainant was Alfred Kumi Atiemo and a member of the Cinematograph Board while the accused person was a producer and a Nigerian living in Ghana.

He said on July 4, 2013, the accused person produced a film called Boko Haram and sent it to the Board for approval and classification but failed to wait for their approval. The prosecutor noted that Adedayo started distributing the film to the public and when the Board was informed, it launched investigation into the matter.

In addition, the prosecutor stated that during the course of investigations in July, it was found that 10,000 copies of the film had been distributed.

Although members of the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG) were happy that their colleague had been spared, Socrate Sarfo, an executive member described  the decision of the  Board  to have one of its members imprisoned for flaunting the laws as an ‘Over reaction’.

He said the board was just ‘overacting to an unfortunate incident that has happened’ and that, their members could not always be held responsible for their actions.

He told Showbiz that even though he admitted that producers must respect the laws protecting the sanctity and quality of movies churned out in the country, producers could not always be held responsible for flaunting the laws.

‘I am not saying that the laws are not important or producers should not follow the laid down procedures and rules but sometimes, the period for authorisation gets longer than expected culminating in the decision of the producer to release the movie without permission.

‘Movie production involves a lot of money and sometimes, you will advertise that the movie will be on the markets within a month but it takes a longer period at the censorship board. Officially, the censorship should be done in two weeks but due to the bureaucratic system which has virtually become a Ghanaian culture; it could even take more than two months. This really affects the producers financially because it is an investment and you need to pay those you work with especially the distributors within a stipulated time’.

That he said has been the bone of contention for most of their members because movie production is an investment and in the quest to recover their resources, they find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

‘I don’t want to lay too much blame on the door step of the Board because they lack the needed resources to work in the first place. It is a pathetic sight if you go to the office. Can you imagine a whole Board seeing to the censorship of movies in a country like Ghana and has only one television set to serve such purposes? How can they even screen the various movies sent to them for censorships?’ he asked.

He noted that FIPAG could not intervene in the case as it was already in court but prayed that the board will always exercise restraint when issues like this come up.

‘Negotiations are always the best in situations like these. I will also appeal to the board to fine our members so that they can make money for the government coffers instead of sentencing them to prison which doesn’t fetch them any money. At least, they can use the fines to improve the resources at the Board’, he said.

By Gifty Owusu-Amoah/Graphic Showbiz/Ghana