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Stephanie Okereke responds to copy right theft allegations

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Stephanie Okereke responds to copy right theft allegations

Days after the media was awash with news of a lawyer and scriptwriter, identified as Daniella Madudu accusing Nollywood actress Stephanie Linus-Okereke of copyright theft, the thespian has responded to the claims leveled against her by Madudu.

In a statement sent through her media minders, Stephanie Linus-Okereke admitted that she indeed received a letter from one Rafiu Bello acting on behalf of one Daniella Madudu on the 19 of May, accusing her of appropriation of an “original literary work” that was allegedly stolen from her by Ms. Joy Ndidi (an allegation that has been roundly refuted).

Stephanie said that among many other things, the letter demanded that she credits Madudu with ownership of her work, pay the sum of N60,000,000 (SIXTY MILLION NAIRA) and royalties; or face a “campaign of calumny”.

The actress said she initially wanted to ignore the allegations as something so ludicrous as to be able to find firm footing in the mind of any normal or rightly thinking individual and only routinely passed the letter onto her lawyers at a later date and thought nothing more of it but her lawyers as a matter of course responded to it.

Stephanie said; “That these persons have since gone ahead with their premeditated plan to defame me upon allegations they know to be baseless, spurious and glaringly untrue is no longer news as the media is presently awash with the ‘fruit of their labour’ and ordinarily I would not have dignified it with a response but for the sake of posterity and lest my silence be termed an admission of any wrongdoing whatsoever, I will simply proceed to state the facts here, viz:

“That since my undergraduate days at the University of Calabar, I have been very passionate and deeply concerned about Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF), the plight of the girl-child and sexual violence against the female gender.

“That in 2006 whilst still on crutches as a result of my ghastly automobile accident from the year before, I volunteered with the Mercy Ships Aberdeen West Africa Fistula Centre (as it then was) in Sierra Leone all out of my own personal savings as this was and will always be a cause very dear to my heart.

“That in 2007/08 I visited the Mariam Abacha Women and Children’s Hospital, Sokoto where I personally made donations to the victims of VVF.

“That in 2008 I was invited by The United Nations and the Government of Liberia to participate in the anti-rape campaign, Stop Rape and the Liberia Fistula Project.

Read also: Script writer accuses actress Stephanie Linus of copyright theft

“That through my non-governmental organisation, The Extended Hands Foundation and our numerous partners, over 150 women and young ladies across the country have successfully undergone reconstructive surgery and have gone on to live wholesome fulfilling lives free of the stigmatization and the sheer pain and discomfort that comes with VVF.

“That I registered the script for my movie ‘DRY’ with The United States Copyright Office on November 28TH, 2011.

“That I registered the script for my movie ‘DRY’ with The Nigerian Copyright Commission on July 27TH, 2012.

“That my movie ‘DRY’ was shot in the months of August and September, 2012 in Nigeria.

“That the unofficial trailer for ‘DRY’ was released to lend my voice in support of the ‘Child Not Bride’ campaign.

“That Ms. Joy Ndidi’s first ever contact with me was in 2013 (DRY was already a finished project at this time) and it was not until June 2013 that she was officially engaged to provide content and ad-placement for my personal blog, ‘The Stephanie Daily’ for all of six (6) months and this she did from the comfort of her home.

“That the so called “original literary work” of the Daniella Madudu, I was supposed to have appropriated in my movie has never been registered at The Nigerian Copyright Commission even as we speak”, the actress said in the statement.

Madudu claims that the movie entitled “DRY” which was released some time ago by the thespian has “substantial similarity” and semblance to an original work, that she (Madudu) wrote in 2011 titled ‘Behind Her Veil’.

Reports say Madudu is seeking legal redress for the infringement and has told her Lagos based solicitors, Rafiu Bello & co, to write the actress requesting credits as owner of the original story, since a substantial part of her movie ‘Behind Her Veil’ was adapted for the movie DRY.

The allegations against Stephanie Linus-Okereke is coming on the heels of another similar case involving actress Omoni Oboli who is also being accused by a Canada based writer who goes by the name Jude Idada of intellectual theft.

Jude alleged that Oboli lifted his script which he said she adapted for her yet-to-be-released movie titled “Okafor’s Law” which got a nod at the Toronto International Film Festival TIFF (one of the top 5 film festivals in the world).

 

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