BREAKING NEWS!!! COSON MEMBERS CELEBRATE EZEKUDE’S FINAL EXIT FROM THE COPYRIGHT COMMISSION

For thousands of members of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) and hundreds of staff of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, Thursday December 6, 2018 was a day of celebration as news broke that the tenure of the very controversial Director-General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, Mr. Afam Ezekude had come to an abrupt end.
Ezekude who for several months was locked out of his Federal Secretariat Abuja office by the protesting staff of his commission on allegations of massive corruption and poor leadership was forced to leave as a result of a Federal government directive.

At COSON House in Ikeja, the headquarters of the continent’s most progressive copyright collective management organization, the news was received with significant cheers and prayers that the Nigerian creative industry not witness the likes of Afam Ezekude again.

Many COSON members condemned Mr. Afam Ezekude who they claim spent a good part of his tenure creating confusion, degrading the NCC and acting as a sworn adversary of COSON which has witnessed tremendous growth despite Ezekude’s antagonism, meddling and harassment.

Reacting to Ezekude’s departure from the NCC, COSON Board member and immediate past President of the powerful Music Label Owners and Recording Industries Association of Nigeria (MORAN), Hon John Ewelukwa Udegbunam, said, “Afam Ezekude allowed himself to be misled. He showed very poor judgment in his decision to engage in the unproductive fight against COSON. He should have understood that COSON has become a popular mass movement from which musicians across the country benefit. His most shameful act, in my opinion, was his vigorous and ultimately failed attempt to suspend the ability of COSON to collect royalties on behalf of Nigerian musicians. The other, is what I consider, his ill-advised trumped up criminal charge against COSON and the Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji, easily, Nigeria’s most consistent and most widely respected campaigner for the respect of the rights of creative people whose unrelenting campaign led to the setting up of the NCC itself. I hope Ezekude’s successors have learnt a lesson and will quickly make peace with COSON. Is it not instructive that Afam Ezekude is gone and Chief Tony Okoroji remains the Chairman of COSON?

Ace drummer, Richard Cole, another member of the COSON Board in reaction said, “the fact that Ezekude is gone should not end the investigations into the alleged enormous corruption against him. People in the creative industry want to know what happened to the millions of Naira invested by the Federal Government in the NCC which Ezekude left broke and practically comatose. About seven Federal Government DGs have visited COSON House. Ministers, NCCs first DG, first Chairman and stars from around the world have been hosted at COSON House. Is it not stupid that not once did Afam Ezekude step into COSON House built and commissioned during his tenure and which he could have claimed as part of his success. His attempt to promote a new Copyright Act failed like a pack of cards. He was being egged on by paper weights in the industry. He followed them and ended his tenure in unending crisis”.

COSON REJECTS APC AND PDP PRESIDENTIAL MANIFESTOS

Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), Africa’s fastest growing collective management organization for musical works and sound recordings, has rejected the presidential manifestos made public by the presidential candidates of both the All Progressive Congress, President Muhammadu Buhari and that of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Rising from a meeting of its Board held at the COSON House on Monday, November 19, 2018, COSON said that after reading both the #NextLevelNG manifesto of the APC and #TheAtikuPlan manifesto of the PDP, it is shocked that none of the candidates appears to have a plan to grow or develop the immense talent that exist in the Nigerian creative industry such as music, movies, theatre, fashion, content etc an area in which the Nigerian nation has significant comparative advantage and the youth have tremendous flair for.
COSON has said that the lack of strong policy positions in this area is evidence of the disconnect between the leadership and the followership in Nigeria. This is not withstanding the significant contribution said to have been made by the Nigerian creative industry when the Nigerian economy was rebased a few years ago under the Jonathan administration.
COSON has announced that the organization is inviting serious politicians to the COSON Arena to come and educate stakeholders in the creative industry on the concrete plans that they have to deploy the assets that the country has in this creative direction. It is the interaction of the industry with the politicians that will determine whom the thousands of members of COSON will endorse, support and campaign for and recommend to their fans to vote for.
Speaking on the decision, COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji said, “We are no longer going to stand on the sidelines. This is the era of the knowledge and creative economy and we will do whatever is necessary to make sure that our country is not just an onlooker in this new world but a key partaker and serious player, starting from 2019. We mean business”

VICTOR UWAIFO WARNS NCC DG, EZEKUDE: PLEASE FIGHT THE PIRATES AND LEAVE COSON AND OKOROJI ALONE!!!

One of Nigeria’s most iconic musicians of all times, Sir Victor Uwaifo, has warned the Director-General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, Mr. Afam Ezekude to concentrate on fighting music pirates and leave Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) and its Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji, alone.

In a letter to Mr. Ezekude dated October 16, 2018 copied to President Muhammadu Buhari and several top government officials, Uwaifo who is a Professor of Fine & Applied Arts at the University of Benin, said that he was left with disbelief and absolute shock upon reading recently that Mr. Ezekude has filed criminal charges against COSON, the COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji and some staff members of COSON.

Professor Uwaifo complained that it appears that in the last one year, rather than fight the pirates killing the creative industry in Nigeria, all the NCC DG has done is wage a misguided war against COSON, Nigeria’s one success story in the copyright sector and a shining symbol of the Nigerian nation across the continent.

In the letter, the multiple award winning and celebrated king of Joromi, Akwete, Titibiti, Ekassa, Sasakosa and many-many hit tunes, who once performed at the United Nations in New York wrote, “It is shameful that the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Copyright Commission would dream of filing a charge against Chief Tony Okoroji, the man that galvanized the entire Nigerian nation with the unsurpassed advocacy that compelled the government to promulgate the Nigerian Copyright Law and set up the Nigerian Copyright Commission which today offers you employment. For several years, Chief Okoroji has been the nation’s No 1 Intellectual Property advocate at great personal cost.

“Maybe you are not aware that Chief Tony Okoroji risked his life for you to have the job you enjoy today. During his agitation for the establishment of the NCC, he could have been killed by the military government of the day. With the help of the likes of Prof. Egerton Ovieghara who became the first Chairman of the NCC, Chief Okoroji drafted the law that set up your commission. I wonder how you can even think of destroying the good name of such a man by filing criminal charges against him. What exactly did he do?”

Sir Victor Efosa Uwaifo who is the winner of Nigeria’s first gold disc album with Joromi, recalled that on February 26, 2018, he sent a letter to Mr. Ezekude in which he cautioned the DG on his continued meddling with the internal affairs of COSON, which he described as an independent private sector organization in which the government of Nigeria has not invested one kobo. He asked Ezekude to go and read the letter again.

Said Uwaifo, “Because you refused to listen to my advice not to continue your unlawful and desperate attempt to control COSON by foisting on COSON a person we believe you wish to manipulate, I led thousands of members of COSON to the Federal High Court where on July 10, 2018, we obtained an order restraining Mr. Efe Omorogbe from parading himself as Chairman of COSON. That order still subsists.

“When you went to town with utmost impunity to publish that you had suspended the operating licence of COSON while the issues were before a court of law, I, once again, led the members of COSON to the Federal High Court to obtain another court order which on September 19, 2018 suspended your purported suspension of the COSON licence. The order also subsists.

“No decent person can understand how under the prevailing circumstances, you can successfully bring any charge against COSON, Chief Tony Okoroji and other management staff of COSON for serving the musicians of Nigeria by doing the work which the law allows them to do.

An obviously angry Uwaifo warned in the letter: “Mr. Afam Ezekude, you are not above the law and somebody needs to call you to order!”

Also in the letter, Prof. Uwaifo advised Ezekude to immediately withdraw any charge he may have filed against COSON, Chief Tony Okoroji and the management staff of COSON, which he emphasized is Nigeria’s most admired organization in the creative industry ever, built with the unrivaled leadership of Chief Tony Okoroji whom he called a nationalist per excellence.

He also advised the DG to focus on fighting the biting piracy militating against the creative industry rather than spend all his time meddling with and trying to destabilize COSON which Prof Uwaifo said is being run professionally.

"I STAND WITH COSON".

If you believe in COSON and have total trust in the work COSON do, kindly comment
"I STAND WITH COSON".

MEETING YOU: COSON LICENCE IS ONE HUNDRED PERCENT NOT SUSPENDED...

MEETING YOU: COSON LICENCE IS ONE HUNDRED PERCENT NOT SUSPENDED...: As lawyers to Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), Nigeria’s most successful organization in the creative industry, our attention has...

COSON LICENCE IS ONE HUNDRED PERCENT NOT SUSPENDED

As lawyers to Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), Nigeria’s most successful organization in the creative industry, our attention has been drawn to the blatantly false information being circulated by mischief makers including the leadership of the Nigerian Copyright Commission that COSON is operating without a CMO approval. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

We wish to state emphatically that COSON’s operations are 100% in consonance with Nigerian law.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Federal High Court, Port-Harcourt, in Suit No FHC/PH/CS/116/2018, on September 19, 2018, made an order against the Nigerian Copyright Commission upon the application of several members of COSON led by the venerable Prof. (Sir) Victor Uwaifo. The order directs:

“maintenance of the status quo and suspension of all actions, proceedings and processes relating to the purported suspension of the licence of COSON and freezing of its bank accounts pending the hearing and the determination of the Motion on Notice already filed in this suit”. The said order of the Federal High Court subsists.

Before the above-mentioned order, the Federal High Court, Enugu in SUIT NO FHC/EN/CS/58/2018, also brought by members of COSON, on July 10, 2018, ordered Mr. Efe Omorogbe to stop parading himself as Chairman of COSON. The order continues to subsist.

There is no court order anywhere restraining COSON from carrying out its functions as a collective management organization. There is also no court order of any type restraining any COSON official from maintaining his or her position. The COSON Board is united. The membership continues to grow exponentially. The management remains solid. Anyone who visits the magnificent COSON House in Ikeja today will see a world class operation with very well trained personnel in a first rate environment.

The very misguided attempt by Mr. Afam Ezekude, the embattled DG of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, to foist those we consider as his cohorts on COSON in a desperate attempt to control this shining Nigerian organization built with the sweat of Nigerian musicians and managed with world class efficiency, has failed repeatedly and will continue to fail.
DG Ezekude is the same man who has for several weeks been reportedly locked out of his own office by his senior staff for allegedly stealing hundreds of millions of Naira belonging to the commission for which his staff have continually called for his arrest and prosecution. In our opinion, the game plan of the DG and his cohorts was to take control of COSON, milk it dry and turn it into another wasteland like the dirty, leaking and smelly NCC office at 16 Aloba Street, Ebute Metta, Lagos where rats and cockroaches fight day and night with the staff for attention.

We hereby stress that every public or commercial user of musical works or sound recordings in the COSON repertoire MUST obtain a COSON licence before such use. We wish to remind such users that musical works and sound recordings are intellectual property owned by citizens and not the property of the NCC. There is no circumstance in which the NCC has power to authorize anyone to use such property for free. We wish to assure everyone who is tempted to ignore this warning that there will be consequences.

Finally, we wish to state that the purported charge by the NCC against COSON, Chief Tony Okoroji and other staff of COSON for obeying the law and vigorously representing the interest of musicians in Nigeria, is a witch hunt gone crazy.

We wish to emphatically inform the general public that our clients have not committed any crime of any kind for which they have to face any charge and that we will seek appropriate legal redress on behalf of our clients for the brazen attempt to soil their names.

For: WHITEDOVE SOLICITORS
JAMES ONONIWU