Deborah Ewedafe: How I lost 4 relatives in 2 months, N6m to cinema scam

Deborah Ewedafe, the Canada-based Nigerian actress, has opened up about her struggles in the film industry.

In an interview with Kunle Afod, Ewadafe detailed how she was scammed of millions of naira while trying to produce her first cinema project.

The filmmaker ventured into movie production in 2021, returning to Nigeria to produce five movies.

She said she met a colleague Abiodun Adebanjo, who pitched a story idea that captivated her.

Ewadafe said, however, that her first major cinema project ‘Olola Aginju’ proved to be “challenging”.

The actress said she was scammed of about N6 million by an individual who promised to screen her movie in cinemas.

“When I came to Nigeria to start producing movies, real movies. I started producing in 2020. I was in Nigeria in 2021. So, when I came to Nigeria that period, I did five movies at a go,” she said.

“That was when I met him also. He was one of the cast in my set. He told me about the movie. I said, I’m interested. I said, but I would have to travel back and come back. So that year, I traveled back.

“It was in the summer. I traveled back and got ready for the production. I was told this is what it will cost.

“Anyway, it was rough for me because it’s the first one because it’s supposed to be cinema. So they didn’t give me the full hit that cinema was hard.

“That cinema movie you’re talking about is what brought me to that ‘if not for God and my strength and my love for the industry that made me pick up’. I picked up again and I started.

“I even had an accident when I was doing that ‘Olola Aginju’. A terrible one. I fell down from the horse. When they said, okay, they are going to stop production for that. I said, no, I will start again. I tied my leg.

“I started the production. Eventually, we got it. ‘Olola Aginju’ is still not out. When we finished the whole production, they said cinema. We got to the cinema. I was duped.

“Right there, somebody said that ‘They would put in the cinema. They collected all my money and gave me a date that the movie would be showing. They collected money to be paid to the cinema to air it. I cannot remember if it was up to N6 million, but about N4 million I can vividly recollect.

“At a point, I was asking what was happening. Eventually, it dawned on me that I was duped.

“So, the person who saved me was a man I employed in my set during the cinema thing. The man discovered that I was duped. I started to pay for cinema again, including an advert. Do you know that till today I have not received a dime from the project?”

‘I LOST FOUR FAMILY MEMBERS IN TWO MONTHS’

Ewedafe also spoke about her personal struggles, revealing that she lost four family members in 2024, including her niece, brother, cousin, and father-in-law.

“I was planning to take some actors to Canada for the continuation of season two of one of my movies that I started two years ago. I stopped acting in movies when I lost 4 members of my family in just 2 months,” she added.

“I lost my niece, whom I started training from the age of 2, and she died at the age of 31. I lost my brother, my cousin, and my father-in-law.

“The year 2024 was a difficult year for me, but I thank God because I learnt a lot from those incidents.”