Issakaba: The Return

The original Issakaba from 2001 was one of the defining films of classic Nollywood — a raw, urgent action film about the Bakassi Boys vigilante group that captured the desperate state of southeastern Nigeria’s security in the early 2000s. Twenty-five years later, Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen returns with a sequel that asks whether Ebube (Sam Dede) and his methods still have a place in a Nigeria that has changed in every way except the ones that matter most.

Sam Dede’s return is the film’s anchor. He carries the weight of a character defined by violence and moral compromise, and his weary authority grounds the film whenever it threatens to go pure action film. Chidi Mokeme brings tremendous screen presence as a new antagonist who is, in crucial ways, Ebube’s mirror. The addition of Regina Daniels and Unusual Phyna as next-generation vigilantes adds energy even when the script gives them underdeveloped arcs.

The action sequences are confidently staged and the southeastern Nigerian setting is rendered with real specificity. Where the film struggles is in grafting contemporary social commentary onto the original’s simpler moral framework — the tension between old-school justice and modern accountability is genuinely interesting but not fully resolved.

For fans of the original, Issakaba: The Return is a worthwhile homecoming. For new audiences, it is a solid action film with more on its mind than most.

Verdict: A respectful, energetic revival. Not the reinvention the material deserves, but more than a nostalgia exercise.