MORAN DECLARES 100% SUPPORT FOR CHIEF TONY OKOROJI AS CHAIRMAN OF COSON.

Members of Music Label Owners & Recording Industries Association of Nigeria (MORAN), the largest association of producers, publishers of music and label owners across Nigeria, hereby declare our 100% support for Chief Tony Okoroji as Chairman of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) of which members of MORAN constitute a significant block.

MORAN vehemently condemns the attempt by some Abuja based government officials to meddle in the internal affairs of COSON, a very successful and completely private sector organization, built without one Naira contribution from the government.

We reject the attempt to impose on COSON one EfeOmorogbe, an individual totally rejected by the members of COSON as chairman of our fledging organization of which we are very proud of.   

We consider the attempt to foist Omorogbe on us as a scheme to install a puppet at COSON, manipulate the organization and loot its resources the same way the resources of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), set up to protect our industry, have been looted and the commission left comatose.

All the key officers of MORAN were present at COSON House, Lagos on December 19, 2017 when the members of COSON from every corner of Nigeria at our General Assembly, in one voice, voted to restore Chief Tony Okoroji as our Chairman. We went further to resolve that Mr. Omorogbe ceases immediately to be a member of our Board.

We are therefore stunned to learn that despite our clear and unambiguous democratic decision, Mr. Omorogbe with his cohorts, bouncers and area boys on March 6 by force attempted to take over the magnificent COSON House commissioned in May last year at an event that Omorogbe was too busy to attend. We find it confounding to learn that Omorogbe was accompanied in his ill-fated mission by an officer of the scandal ridden NCC, despite the fact thatEfeOmorogbe’s desperate behavior is before the law courts.

We commend the excellent staff of COSON who took gallant steps to ensure that this unwanted visitor and his gang of interlopers did not gain entrance into COSON House which stands tall today as a product of the vision, commitment and ceaseless energy of our Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji who has earned the trust that the Nigerian creative community has in him.

We commend the Management of COSON for the complete rejection of EfeOmorogbe’s Greek gifts and his cheap ‘divide and rule’ tricks.

We are proud of the reconstituted COSON Board for its steadfastness in protecting the independence of COSON and in pursuing the reversal at the Court of Appeal of the recent curious judgment of the Federal High Court on MCSN, NCC and the AGF after the case file had been seized in mysterious circumstances.

We restate our 100% support for Chief Tony Okoroji who has been tried and tested repeatedly and never once found wanting in his commitment to the promotion and protection of the creative industry in Nigeria.

We warn Mr. EfeOmorogbe to desist from further being used to destabilize COSON as the members have given him enough time to retrace his steps.

 FOR AND BEHALF OF MORAN: