The family of the late Ibadan political powerbroker Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu is demanding ₦500 million in damages from filmmaker Seun Oloketuyi over his biopic "Adedibu: Alagbara Ibadan," which they say was made and released without their consent. Oloketuyi's lawyers have rejected the demand in full, setting up a dispute that touches on privacy, historical record, and the limits of what a filmmaker can tell about a public figure after death.
Adedibu died on June 11, 2008, and remains one of Oyo State's most influential and controversial political figures, remembered as the strongman of Ibadan politics whose grip extended deep into the PDP's structures in the state. Oloketuyi, founder of the Best of Nollywood Awards and head of Ultimate Communications, first announced the biopic in 2022, after filming wrapped in Ibadan, with a planned release that July. The project features veteran actor Lere Paimo in the lead role as Adedibu, directed by Abiodun Jimoh, with a cast including Segun Arinze, Afeez Oyetoro, Adekola Tijani, Taiwo Ibikunle, Anike Ami, Shushu Abubakar and Kayode Olaiya. At the time, Oloketuyi said his biopics exist to preserve the stories of figures shaping Nigeria's political history before those memories fade, arguing that Adedibu "made too much of an impact to allow memories of his time to be forgotten."
The film surfaced publicly more than four years after that original announcement. A video titled "Adedibu Latest Movie 2026" was published on October 3, 2026, with promotional material advertising a premiere on the Libra TV YouTube channel the following day. The National Film and Video Censors Board classified the film with a 15 rating under certificate 061286, dated October 8.
Lawyers for the Adedibu estate administrators and family, led by Blossom Chambers, describe the film's content as containing grave untruths, fabrications and sensational falsehoods about Adedibu's private life and political career. Their objections centre on how the film portrays his early years, his bedroom life, his family and his lifestyle, which they say present him as morally depraved. They also dispute the film's depiction of him rigging elections through violence, practising what they call "amala politics" to control Ibadan residents, and functioning as a "puppet of doom," calling these portrayals malicious distortions of what they describe as his grassroots mobilisation work. The family says the filmmakers never interviewed relatives or consulted family archives, and that images, voice recordings and private family photographs were used without permission.
Their demands, set out in a letter to the producers, include the immediate removal of the film and all excerpts, clips or reuploads from YouTube and any other platform, preservation of the raw footage, sources and scripts used in production, and a commitment that no further productions about Adedibu be made without the estate administrators' written consent. They also demanded a three-minute apology pinned for 30 days on the same YouTube channel, a further apology published in the Nigerian Tribune within seven days, and ₦500 million in aggravated damages for invasion of privacy, false light and reputational injury. The family gave the producers 48 hours to comply, warning that failure to do so would lead to complaints filed with YouTube, a petition to the Cybercrime Unit of the Inspector-General of Police, and a lawsuit at the Oyo State High Court seeking ₦1 billion and a perpetual injunction against the film.
ASALAW LP, acting for the producer, rejected the allegations and every demand in a response dated October 7. The firm argued that the family's letter failed to identify any specific false statement, timestamp or contradicting evidence, and described the film instead as a retelling of the public life of a heavily documented political figure, stating that every fact depicted in it is already in the public domain, drawn from newspapers, books, academic work, broadcasts and earlier documentaries covering the same events. On the question of consent, the lawyers argued that Nigerian law generally does not require a deceased public figure's relatives to approve a historical or political account of his life, while distinguishing this from any copyright claim over specific photographs or recordings, on which they said the family had not identified any material it holds an enforceable right over. On privacy, they said the film concerns itself with Adedibu's public conduct and does not publish any relative's address, contact details, identification numbers or medical records. They further questioned the family's legal standing to sue for defamation of a deceased person, since none of the contested statements refer personally to any living relative. The firm said it remained open to considering any specific, documented complaint in good faith within seven days, but asked the family's lawyers to first provide proof of their authority to act on the estate's behalf, and warned that it would file a counter-notification should the family pursue a takedown through YouTube, while reserving the right to seek compensation for lost revenue and reputational harm if the film were pulled down.
Ultimate Communications issued its own public notice denying that it solicited money from anyone in connection with the production, calling any claims to the contrary false and misleading. The company described the film as a tribute to an iconic political figure, said it held the Adedibu family in high esteem, and said it did not want the dispute playing out publicly on social media, adding that the matter had been referred to its lawyers.
