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Veteran Nollywood filmmaker Don Pedro Obaseki has narrated how he was allegedly attacked, stripped naked, and dragged through parts of Benin City on Sunday by some unidentified youths.
Speaking in an interview with AIT, Obaseki said the incident occurred between 11:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. at Uwa Primary School, where he had gone to play football with friends.
According to him, the youths stormed the football pitch and told him they had been sent by the palace of the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, to abduct him.
“Today, at about 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM, Sunday, the 28th of December, while playing football with my football mates at Uwa Primary School in Benin. Assailants attacked the place, and I was physically abducted – I’m sorry, physically kidnapped,” he said.
“Some of them were holding guns, and some of them were non-thugs. Luckily, I asked their names, and they hauled me through the streets of Benin, under the guise that they had been sent to come and abduct me by the palace of the Oba of Benin.”
Obaseki said he was later dragged through Igbisa and Agpapava to Ring Road, where he was allegedly stripped in public before being taken to the palace.
“I begged them to show me some form of ID (identity card). Of course not, but I was dragged, beaten severely, manhandled, and dragged through Igbisa and straight up to Agpapava, which is the main thoroughfare in Benin, and up to Ring Road, where I was stripped naked and taken into the palace of the Oba of Benin, and where I was meant to kneel in full public. I have never been so humiliated.”
The filmmaker, who pioneered major Nollywood productions such as Igodo (1999), Eziza and the television series Days of Rage, said he was later told that his alleged offence was disrespecting the monarch during a meet-and-greet organised by a former Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki.
He added that the issue was also linked to a statement he made in London, where he said “Edo Ato Kpee”, meaning “may Edo people live long and prosper”, instead of a phrase directly referencing the Oba.
“I am traumatised, I am distraught, and I hear that my sin was that I went to London, and in a public statement, I said, ‘Edo Ato Kpee,’ which means, ‘May Edo people live long and prosper.’ That I should have said, Oba Ato Kpeee, may the Oba live long and prosper.
“That my saying, ‘May Edo people live long and prosper,’ is a cardinal saying in Benin. For me, who has helped elevate the culture of the Benin race over the past 35 to 40 years, as the pioneer of the present Nollywood. Edo Ato Kpee, Oba Ato Kpee, because it is cybernetic, there is no king without subjects.”
Obaseki further disclosed that after being taken to the palace, he was later transferred to a police station along Oba Market Road, where the state commissioner of police intervened within hours and ordered his release.
He also said that from his interaction with some chiefs at the palace, it appeared they were unaware of the alleged abduction and had not authorised the actions of the youths.
“And from the countenance of the chiefs I met at the palace, it was clear that they did not send these people on these messages, so this elemental brigadage has to stop.”
