Singer Ewa Cole Files a N300m Lawsuit against Funke Akindele & JJC Skillz
Singer Ewa Cole has filed a lawsuit against music executive JJC Skillz and movie director Funke Akindele for copyright infringement of her songs in the movie “She Must Be Obeyed.”
“SHE Must Be Obeyed,” a five-part series was co-directed by Funke Akindele and her ex-husband JJC Skillz. It was produced by SceneOne Entertainment.
Ewa Cole, through her attorney Adewale Williams, claims ownership of the rights to “Opoor” and “Bhad Garl,” two of the songs allegedly sampled in “SHE Must Be Obeyed,” in a case brought before the Federal High Court of Lagos.
Tony Ugiagbe (Topage), Waje, Veeiye, Amazon Web Services Nigeria Ltd. (BoomPlay), Amazon Web Services Inc., and Apple Inc. are among the defendants in this action.
Cole claimed that after Topage, the song producer, told her that her songs were rejected, Waje and Veeiye copied “Bhad Gyal” and “Opoor.”
She alleged that no credit was given to her and that the songs were copied without “permission or approval.”
In addition, Ewa Cole demands N300 million in damages for what she claims to be labor infringement.
She requested that the defendants be barred from copyrighting, performing, or redistributing her musical compositions forever by a permanent injunction from the court.
She also pleaded with the court to grant the defendants a 45 percent cut of all earnings from the use, performance, duplication, and sale of the two songs.
Part of the suit reads;
“Sometime in June 2021, Our Client was contacted by one Mr Fony a.k.a Tony Age to produce soundtracks for the movie “She Must Be Obeyed” series being produced by Scene One production, Funke Akindele and her crew at that material time. The movie starred several celebrities like Veeiye (as Tito); Waje (as X-cite)}; Shaffy Belfo as Iya Siyanbola, amongst others,” the petition reads.
“Our brief revealed that after writing and recording the two songs, “Bhad Gyal” and “OPOOR” in a music studio with the aid of Mr. Tony a.k.a Tony Age (who was working with the “She Muse Be Obeyed” crew as that time), she handed over the tracks to him with the understanding that Funke Akindele and her crew will reach out to her for payments and recognition.
“After weeks of waiting, Our Client received the sad news that her songs had been rejected and would no longer be deployed in the production of the series only for Our Client to shockingly discover thereafter that she has been lied to and scammed, and that her songs were REPRODUCED by Waje and Veeiye and deployed for the production of the said movie without Our Client’s permission or approval or any credit to her. The “Bhad Gyal’ song was mimed by Waje while on stage in the movie, whilst the OPOOR song ran through the background of the entirety of the series.
“The “She Must Be Obeyed” series released in September 2023 and premiered by Amazon Prime Video is now been watched around the globe and generating several revenues for Amazon, Apple Music, BoomPlay, Funke Akindele, and her crew without even the least recognition of Our Client as the author of those songs.”
The movie “SHE must be obeyed” had emerged as the highest-grossing box office movie of 2022.
By Ezinne Okorie
