Sam Dede returns as Ebube as the 2001 vigilante thriller gets a sequel, with its director back behind the camera.
Nollywood action-thriller Issakaba: The Return, a sequel to the 2001 original, is set for nationwide cinema release in Nigeria on Friday, November 13, 2026. Director and co-producer Lancelot Imasuen disclosed the date at a press screening in Lagos.
The film brings back veteran actor Sam Dede as Ebube, the leader of the vigilante group at the centre of the original. Dede is now a Theatre Arts lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt.
Imasuen said the first film grew out of the success of his previous hit, The Last Burial, which Kas-Vid International's late Jude Chukwuka Emelionwu produced. What caught his eye was the vigilante group itself: "my attention was drawn to the activities of the Bakassi Boys in Aba." The working title was "My Town".
Imasuen also recalled a run-in with the group. In an interview with Channels Television, he said the Bakassi Boys arrested the distributor of the 2001 film in Aba and confronted Dede. "The distributor in Aba was then arrested by them, the Bakassi Boys," he said. The group felt the film had gone too far and asked how the filmmakers knew about them. The confrontation with Dede happened in Aba, while Dede was on his way to Port Harcourt. The group's methods had also drawn criticism over allegations of extrajudicial killings and human rights abuses.
On the film's message, Imasuen said: "Issakaba said security is local. Let traditional rulers, local governments and communities be involved in securing their people." He argued that nothing has changed since 2001: "From the look of things, nothing has changed after 25 years."
Imasuen said the original film was built around a question he believes is still urgent today:
"Can a people truly be secure if the people themselves are excluded from the conversation about their security?"
The ensemble is led by Sam Dede as Ebube, alongside Nosa Rex, Francis Onwochei, Emeka Rising, Iyabo Ojo, Sir Alex Usifo and Chidi Mokeme, with Regina Daniels and Charles Okafor also named in the cast. Chiwetalu Agu and Mike Ogundu return from the original. Several original cast members, including Zulu Adigwe, Amaechi Muonagor, Pete Eneh and John Okafor, have since died.
Imasuen said pairing old and new actors is deliberate: "The old generation carries the memory of the story, while the new generation carries the responsibility of interpreting what that story means today."
The original was inspired, in part, by the Bakassi Boys and by what Imasuen called "the alleged activities of the notorious Eddy Nawgu in Anambra State". The story also has the Issakaba Boys acquiring traditional powers of their own to fight armed robbers who use mystical ones.
Blue Pictures distributes the film, which opens in cinemas nationwide on November 13.
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