Owambe Thieves had one job: give us chaos, comedy, and a high-stakes heist in gele and agbada. It had the potential to bring something fresh to Nollywood’s growing genre of caper-style dramas—but instead, it stumbles into a mix of tonal confusion, poor writing, and scattered character arcs. What begins as a story of desperation and survival derails into an inconsistent tale where motivations are unclear, betrayals come out of nowhere, and a promising concept is weighed down by poor execution

. At this point, it feels like most films are put out to condition the audience to accept and get used to mediocrity.

A Premise Built on Desperation

Owambe Thieves‘ story starts strong. Lola (Eniola Ajao) and Cheta (Zubby Michael) are a struggling married couple who’ve just had a child. They’re jobless, broke, and judged harshly by everyone around them. Cheta is fired early on by his boss Oga Bling-Bling (Femi Branch) for having a spine. Bernard (Odunlade Adekola), the ever-predictable Nollywood trickster, offers them a roof over their heads but tries to take advantage of Lola. They escape and move in with her mother (Sola Sobowale), a character as materialistic as she is cold. From this setup, the film lays out its central tension: how far would two desperate people go for survival?

The eventual heist idea emerges at Lola’s sister’s wedding, where money will flow and her scheming begins. It’s a believable and interesting setup—a broke couple seeing an opportunity in Nigeria’s culture of public spraying. They steal, it works, and now they have a business model. But then the film tries too hard to upscale that simple premise into something it isn’t. Organized heists? Blueprints? High-level crime coordination? The tone shifts drastically from gritty hustle to Netflix-wannabe criminal network, and the story buckles under the weight of that ambition.

Performances and Characters: A Few Bright Spots

Zubby Michael and Eniola Ajao hold down the screen with their morally grey charm. You don’t root for them, but you get why they do what they do. They carry the film’s first half well, though Eniola’s line delivery occasionally slips. Sola Sobowale plays the kind of loud, morally compromised matriarch she’s mastered. Odunlade is, well, Odunlade. You see him, you know something’s off.

Femi Branch’s casting as an Igbo man was bold, but not necessarily smart. His performance leans into caricature more than character. Papaya’s role is mostly visual, contributing little beyond a surface-level idea of flirtation. And her character’s arc (or lack of it) doesn’t justify the screentime. But the most jarring shift is Cheta’s sudden infidelity. It’s not just that it felt out of character, it fed into tired stereotypes: give a poor man money, and he becomes a cheat. That arc deserved more thought, especially considering how grounded the couple had been up until that point.

Plot and Technical Oversights

The plot moves fast in the first act but collapses in its attempt to scale up. A wedding heist across different Nigerian tribes should feel loud, colourful, and unpredictable. Instead, it’s surprisingly tame. The inclusion of multiple owambes across Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa cultures had potential but ended up more as a montage of costume and background music with noticeable errors like Yoruba music playing at an Igbo ceremony. Worse still, key scenes were rushed. The final heist was clumsily cut, the revenge subplot felt slapped on, and the film ended with a poorly timed “To be continued” that no one asked for.

There’s also a glaring lack of polish. Some crew members appear in the background, continuity breaks are visible, and Lola explains to the point that night falls mid-monologue. This should have been a fun crime comedy.

Final Thoughts: Good Concept, No Payoff

Owambe Thieves had the right ingredients: a solid lead duo, a cultural playground of parties and politics, and a refreshing premise of desperation driving crime. But it doesn’t trust its own simplicity. In trying to make a gritty couple into a slick criminal operation, it loses its footing. The cultural details are half-baked, the characters are underdeveloped, and the tone sways between dramatic realism and absurd fantasy.

This could have been a standout satire about class, survival, and the spectacle of Nigerian parties. Instead, it’s a watchable but hollow experience just enough story to keep you curious, but not enough coherence to keep you satisfied.

Verdict

Owambe Thieves is the definition of almost. Almost funny, almost clever, almost chaotic. But in the end, it leaves you feeling nothing.

Rating: 2.1/5