Chairman of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), Tony Okoroji, has labelled the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) a ‘monster’ for its role in the leadership tussle between him and his opponent, Efe Omoregbe.
He said this in a press conference held at the COSON House in Ikeja, Lagos on Tuesday.
“The NCC has continued to harass and intimidate COSON. It has become a monster,” he said.
Mr Okoroji stated that COSON received a pre-dated letter, dated May 2, 2019, on May 3, 2019, from the NCC, demanding that it suspends its mandate to receive royalties on behalf of the members of its organisation.
This, he said, is contrary to section 44 of the Nigerian constitution, which recognises the right of every Nigerian to earn royalties from their intellectual property.
He also claimed that COSON has carried out regular audits and submitted its reports to the NCC as entrenched in the Companies and Allied Matters Act of the Copyright Affairs Commission (CAC), which allows organisations to carry out their audit internally.
He, however, alleged that in spite of this, the NCC demanded that COSON submit itself for an external audit by an auditor employed by the NCC.
Okoroji also accused the NCC of running a smear campaign against COSON and its board.
This and other actions of the NCC, according to him, have discouraged international record companies from working with Nigerian artistes as they cannot be guaranteed that their intellectual rights will be protected.
He also alleged that there is ample evidence to suggest that the Director-General of the NCC, John Asein, with IPPIS No 101108 may have continued to collect salaries from the NCC several months into 2016 after retiring as a member of staff of the commission on December 31, 2015.
Similarly, he claimed to have evidence to show that for the months of January, February, March and April 2016, Mr Asein unlawfully earned an income of N502,271.00 in each of the months from the Federal Government.
Stating that the behaviour is clearly fraudulent and criminal, Okoroji said that Asein deserves to be fully investigated and if he is found liable, prosecuted.
Okoroji also alleged that more than one year after he assumed office as DG of the NCC, Asein is still listed on www.repronig.ng, the website of REPRONIG, as the company’s executive director.
“In effect, Mr Asein is at the same time both the Head of Reporters Rights Society of Nigeria (REPRONIG), an organization regulated by the NCC and Head of the regulatory agency, the NCC! This is a bewildering example of conflict of interest with extensive consequences. There is no question that this deserves to be investigated and the investigation must cover how the millions of Naira in grants to REPRONIG by different donor agencies have been disbursed by John Ohireime Asein, who is also the sole signatory to the REPRONIG account,” he said.
He was further alleged that at the same time that Asein is a public servant, he is also a director of a private company known as Books & Gavel Ltd which is prohibited under the Public Service Rules.
Okoroji, therefore, called for Asein’s resignation and appealed to the Federal Government to put an end to the alleged continued harassment of COSON by the NCC.
The COSON head also alleged that the president of the Music Publishers of Nigeria (MPAN), Isioma Idigbe, a rival organisation, is also on the payroll of Punuka Attorneys and Solicitors, the legal representatives of the NCC in the court case between the NCC and COSON.
This, he said, is a conflict of interest on the part of the law firm.
The crisis in COSON began in December 2017 when a faction of the organisation declared Omoregbe chairman of the board of NCC.
His election was contested in court by Okoroji, the incumbent chairman.
The court then ordered Omoregbe, who is 2Face Idibia’s manager, to stop parading himself as chairman of COSON.
Omoregbe was arrested and arraigned in April 2018 for forgery of the COSON letterhead and other documents and also breaching peace by parading himself as the chairman of COSON in apparent defiance of the court order.
