Press Release From The producers Of The 93 Days Movie

We hereby categorically and strongly deny all the
allegations contained in the recent press
statement released by one Dr Ama Adadevoh,
who claims to be acting on behalf of the Cardoso
and Adadevoh families. The said allegations are
not only untrue they are malicious and scurrilous
and a calculated attempt to sabotage our feature
film, “93 Days”. 93 Days is not the biopic of any
one individual and has never claimed to be the
story of Doctor Stella Adadevoh.
Whilst that in itself is a strong story, we found it
more compelling to tell a story that celebrates
many of the heroes of the fight against Ebola.
These include the doctors, nurses and staff of
First Consultant’s Hospital, the employees of the
Lagos and Federal Ministries of Health, corporate
and individual Nigerians who rose to the
challenge of fighting the scourge as well as the
WHO team that came in to help at the risk of
personal injury and even death. For us, this
presented a more universal story of human
courage, dedication and sacrifice that may inspire
our great country and its people. Ours is a pride
story that shows Nigeria at one of its finest
hours and casts our country in a positive light
around the world.
To ensure the universal appeal of the film we
enlisted, at great cost, Nigerian and International
actors to feature in the film. Amongst these were
Danny Glover, Keppy Ekpeyong and Bimbo
Akintola. We want to state plainly that we do not
require anyone’s consent to make the film as we
have a constitutionally guaranteed right to
freedom of speech and expression. Besides, the
matters portrayed in the film were derived from
facts that are well within the public domain and
those facts which were not already publicly
known were provided to us by those privy to the
said facts.
For instance, we obtained additional information
from interviews with the survivors of those who
lost loved ones, volunteer doctors and nurses as
well as officials of the Lagos State Ministry of
Health. To honor those protagonists of the Ebola
story it was essential for us that the film be, as
much as possible, an accurate, genuine and
sincere record of the facts relating to the
country’s efforts to fight the disease.
In fact, that was the only way of doing justice to
those brave individuals (and foreigners) who had
given so much in the service of the country. To
this end and contrary to the allegations contained
in the press statement released by Dr Ama
Adadevoh, we enlisted the help of the Adadevoh
and Cardoso families from day one.
They gave their comments on the script and their
amendments were incorporated into the final
script. Further, the late Stella Adadevoh’s son,
Bankole Cardoso, consented to the making of the
film and to being portrayed in the film. Not only
did he consent, he was kind enough to provide us
with information concerning his late mother’s
actions during those trying times.
The facts provided by him proved useful in the
development of the script and we have his
interview on film should anyone require further
proof. In essence, the story of Dr Stella Adadevoh
depicted in the film was obtained partly from
facts provided to us by the Adadevoh and
Cardoso families and more importantly by her
son, Bankole Cardoso.
We are aware that Dr Ama Adadevoh and certain
elements within the family are involved in another
film project on the Ebola story and are attempting
to derail our film in the misguided belief that to
do so would ensure the success of their film. It is
plainly wrong for these people to try and
monopolize the Ebola story exclusively for
themselves by trying to prevent the making and
release of a film that so many of the people
concerned have supported and contributed to.
Our film features many of the people who were in
the vanguard of the fight against the terrible
disease. Many of these people lost loved ones
and made other sacrifices still unknown to a
majority of Nigerians. They have supported the
film and want their story told and it is only fair
that their stories are told.
In light of this, we fully intend to tell their story!
In doing so we refuse to be bullied or cowed by
empty, petty and ridiculous threats based on false
and trumped up allegations.