NOLLYWOOD EXCLUSIVE!!! Executive producer of award-winning film "Adesuwa" faces legal battle and goes incomunicado after accusing its director

The unravelling battle over ownership of the award-winning epic film Adesuwa which resulted in its producer/director Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen spending a night in police custody in Asaba on Tuesday is now about to turn nasty. In an exclusive interview with the SPY today, two senior partners of J2 Konsults - the London-based international media consultants on diaspora matters for Lancelot Imasuen Media Network (LIMN) revealed details of how the feuding Nollywood producers began collaboration on the film and disclosed that legal counsels for Imasuen were actively preparing to take the matter to court.
However, according to the sources, the film's executive producer  John Chukwuma Abua, a new-comer to Nollywood who claims to have hired the services of Imasuen strictly to produce and direct it has since gone incommunicado and cannot be reached. Contrary to Abua's claim, the SPY has gathered that "Adesuwa - The Wasted Lust" the blockbuster film that won three categories at the recent African Movies Academy Awards (AMAA) was already a "work in progress" at the stables of Lancelot Imasuen when Abua - a Real Estate Contractor with virtually no experience in the film industry or connection with Nollywood but desperate to go into film production approached the acclaimed producer/director with a totally different movie script whose title was not revealed. But his choice of working with Imasuen was not incidental.
The SPY can reveal that Abua, an only child had first sought advice from his father John Uche Abua about his adventure into Nollywood. Pa Abua gave his approval strictly on the condition that he worked with his favourite  - Imasuen. However, after studying the script that the aspiring producer brought to the table, Imasuen found no substance in it and instead suggested that he invest in his ongoing project in conjunction with writer Ossa Earlice. According to my sources Abua then entered into a contract and sank approximately N550000 into the intrinsically Edo epic film for which Imasuen had in the meantime obtained permission from and blessings of the Oba of Benin. The film eventually cost in the region of N17million but it remains unclear how the larger chunk of the capital was raised.
In April, Adesuwa won AMAA's Best Nigerian film, Best Costume and Best Visual effects. On the occasion the audience was treated to unscripted drama - not the baseless insinuations built around the moment when Imasuen and Abua were photographed swapping one of their gongs - but the spectacle of the Executive Director who froze on stage, microphone in hand and unable to make his acceptance speech. A reliable source disclosed that acting on wrong advice, Abua who apparently has a gripe with Nollywood directors for "taking all the credit" according to him - promptly set-up shop as a film maker after establishing contact with Imasuen and believes he now has a platform to take on the big boys. But he seems to have already stepped on the wrong toes by insinuating that his failure to obtain a visa to attend the film's London premier last October was because the event's organisers had issued him with a fake invite. The SPY has however been able to disprove this indicting claim as we reliably learned that three out of the seven African guests including top Ghanaian actor Kofi Adjorlolo who received the same invite were able to get visa clearance albeit belatedly. The SPY further gathered that the organisers are also consulting their lawyers.
At the time of this report all efforts by the SPY to contact Abua for comments were unsuccessful.