Nigerians, UK producer collaborate on The Hijack 93

IN further demonstrating the increasing collaboration between Nigerian film producers, four will tell the story of the audacious 1993 plane hijack by four young men.

Following their disaffection with the annulment of the June 12 elections, four Movement for the Actualization of Democracy (MAD) members hijacked a plane heading to Abuja from Lagos and diverted it to Niamey, Niger Republic. They held the plane hostage for 70 hours.

CEO of Play Network Studios, Charles Okpaleke, announced in 2019 that he intended to make a film from that event. The camera is set to roll on ‘The Hijack 93’ three years after his announcement.

Two prolific film production companies in Nigeria, Play Network Studios and Native Media TV, in collaboration with UK-based filmmaker Femi Oyeniran, are championing the production.

The co-production is supported by the UK’s Department of International Trade (DIT), which has been actively seeking and facilitating UK-Nigeria co-productions in the film & TV space and the British Film Institute, BFI.

“The collaborators find this project most suitable for encouragement because they acknowledge that what happens to us is our story, and the stories we tell become our history. The story of the African person must be told and defined by Africans,” read a statement.

Consequently, Rogers Ofime (Voiceless and Olobiri), Okpaleke, director and producer, Agozie Ugwu, and Femi Oyeniran will call the shots on the project.

Oyeniran has vast experience in filmmaking, including writing an episode on the Netflix Original series ‘Turn Up Charlie’ by Idris Elba. He has been a significant player in the following productions; Sky Atlantic Series: Tin Star, Comedy Central’s Drunk History: Black Stories, and BET’s first UK-originated programme, The Culture Capsule.