DomittilaGATE - Producer Zeb Ejiro Reveals Actress Anne Njemanze Asked For N17million To Feature In Sequel

Popular filmmaker, Zeb Ejiro, has expressed joy at defeating actress, Anne Njemanze, over a case of copyright infringement regarding the movie, ‘Domitilla’.

On Thursday, May 4, 2023, the Chief Registrar of The Trademark Tribunal sitting in Abuja, Shafiu Yauri, had cancelled Njemanze’s registration of ‘Domitilla’ as a trademark. He ruled that the documents issued to her were done in error.

Speaking on the genesis of the case, Ejiro told Saturday Beats, “When I shot ‘Domitilla’ in 1996, I invited Anne to act in it. She was not a star then. Some years later, I made ‘Domitilla 2’. She did not play the role of Domitilla in that sequel, but the character’s mother. When I went into partnership with FilmOne Entertainment, I called her in 2019 to say that we were shooting the movie.
“When I called her again last year (2022) that we were ready to shoot, she asked me to pay her N17m. I did not know that she had gone behind me to trademark the name as her property.
“ I petitioned the trademark office, informing them that Anne did not have any work with the name ‘Domitilla’. We were then invited to defend our submission.

“They (Anne and her lawyers) tried to get an order to restrain the movie from being released but they failed. We eventually won the case.”

Ejiro also stated that he actually reached out to Njemanze over the issue to no avail. He said, “We had finished shooting and editing the remake of the movie when we suddenly saw a court order that our office should be searched and properties seized because we were infringing on Njemanze’s right. I called her several times to ask her what was wrong, but she did not answer my calls. As an elder in the industry, I started calling people to talk to her. I wondered why she wanted to kill my business. Is that how she was supposed to pay me, whom God used to launch her into the industry?”

from Punch