Saturday, May 12, 2018
MEETING YOU:
COSON MEMBERS AT 2018 AGM ASK BUHARI
TO IMMEDIATELY SACK NCC DG AFAM EZEKUDE
Thousands of members of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) who thronged Lagos
Sheraton Hotel Ikeja on May 10, 2018 for the COSON Annual General Meeting have
resoundingly asked President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately remove from office
Mr. Afam Ezekude, the Director-General of Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC).
The conclusion of the COSON AGM is that the creative industry has totally lost
confidence in Mr. Ezekude’s leadership.
When the motion came up for debate, not one person from the array of musicians
and music industry stakeholders from practically every state in Nigeria that
formed a sea of heads at the over flowing Banquet Hall of Sheraton Lagos
supported the continued stay in office of Mr. Ezekude.
One after the other, they repeated that Afam Ezekude has completely lost the
plot and instead of fighting pirates and other enemies of the creative
industry, the DG facing serious allegations of fraud by his staff is fully
engaged in oppressing his staff and fighting the industry he was appointed to
serve.
The COSON members in full voice condemned the purported suspension of the
operating licence of COSON, the most admired copyright collective management
organization in Africa and a major beacon of pride for the Nigerian nation.
They described Mr. Ezekude’s action while the matter was before a court of competent
jurisdiction as recklessness and impunity of the worst kind. The COSON members
at AGM asked the general public to ignore the so-called suspension which has
been described by the senior staff of NCC as the personal foible of Ezekude and
not the policy of the Management of the NCC. When the motion to request for the
immediate sack of Afam Ezekude came up for vote, it received 100% support.
Other resolutions passed at the AGM include the following:
1. That all resolutions and decisions made at the Extra – Ordinary General
Meeting of December 19, 2017 and all decisions made by the Management Board
thereafter be ratified and are ratified by the 8th Annual General Meeting;
2. That the reinstatement of Chief Tony Okoroji, in whom COSON members have
full confidence, as Chairman of the Management Board by the General Assembly at
the Extra -Ordinary General Meeting of December 19, 2017 be ratified and is
ratified by the 8th Annual General Meeting;
3. That the COSON Management headed by the General Manager, Mr. Chinedu
Chukwuji, be commended and is commended for forcefully defending the interest
of COSON and its members;
4. That the representative capacity of Prof (Sir) Victor Uwaifo on behalf of
the members of COSON in the Four Billion Naira action filed by COSON members
against the NCC, Mr. Afam Ezekude, Mr. Obi Ezeilo, Mr. Mike Akpan, Mr. Efe
Omorogbe and others at the Federal High Court, Enugu be ratified and is
ratified by the 8th Annual General Meeting.
5. That the Audited Accounts of the society for the financial year ended
December 31, 2017 be approved and is approved by the 8th Annual General
Meeting.
COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji whose deep articulate and philosophical
address at the AGM received repeated thunderous ovations was formally presented
with his award for exemplary leadership by PMAN, Edo State Chapter. On hand to
present the award was the state Chairman, Comrade Willy Eghe Nova.
At the AGM, elections were conducted to fill vacant positions on the Board. At
the very peaceful elections conducted by two top journalists, Mr. Biodun
Kupoluyi and Mr. Shaibu Hussein, the following were elected to the COSON Board:
Sir Shina Peters, Mr. Ras Kimono Onwubayi, Ms. Kenny Saint Brown, Ms. Maureen
Ejezie Uso, Mr Richard Cole, Mr. Uche Emeka Paul, Engr Sharon Esco Wilson and
Evangelist Olusegun Omoyayi.
At the end of the eventful meeting, the COSON members sang, danced and
celebrated a truly momentous event and cut a birthday cake in honour of reggae
star, Ras Kimono, who just turned 60 years.
Thousands of members of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) who thronged Lagos Sheraton Hotel Ikeja on May 10, 2018 for the COSON Annual General Meeting have resoundingly asked President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately remove from office Mr. Afam Ezekude, the Director-General of Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC). The conclusion of the COSON AGM is that the creative industry has totally lost confidence in Mr. Ezekude’s leadership.
When the motion came up for debate, not one person from the array of musicians and music industry stakeholders from practically every state in Nigeria that formed a sea of heads at the over flowing Banquet Hall of Sheraton Lagos supported the continued stay in office of Mr. Ezekude.
One after the other, they repeated that Afam Ezekude has completely lost the plot and instead of fighting pirates and other enemies of the creative industry, the DG facing serious allegations of fraud by his staff is fully engaged in oppressing his staff and fighting the industry he was appointed to serve.
The COSON members in full voice condemned the purported suspension of the operating licence of COSON, the most admired copyright collective management organization in Africa and a major beacon of pride for the Nigerian nation. They described Mr. Ezekude’s action while the matter was before a court of competent jurisdiction as recklessness and impunity of the worst kind. The COSON members at AGM asked the general public to ignore the so-called suspension which has been described by the senior staff of NCC as the personal foible of Ezekude and not the policy of the Management of the NCC. When the motion to request for the immediate sack of Afam Ezekude came up for vote, it received 100% support.
Other resolutions passed at the AGM include the following:
1. That all resolutions and decisions made at the Extra – Ordinary General Meeting of December 19, 2017 and all decisions made by the Management Board thereafter be ratified and are ratified by the 8th Annual General Meeting;
2. That the reinstatement of Chief Tony Okoroji, in whom COSON members have full confidence, as Chairman of the Management Board by the General Assembly at the Extra -Ordinary General Meeting of December 19, 2017 be ratified and is ratified by the 8th Annual General Meeting;
3. That the COSON Management headed by the General Manager, Mr. Chinedu Chukwuji, be commended and is commended for forcefully defending the interest of COSON and its members;
4. That the representative capacity of Prof (Sir) Victor Uwaifo on behalf of the members of COSON in the Four Billion Naira action filed by COSON members against the NCC, Mr. Afam Ezekude, Mr. Obi Ezeilo, Mr. Mike Akpan, Mr. Efe Omorogbe and others at the Federal High Court, Enugu be ratified and is ratified by the 8th Annual General Meeting.
5. That the Audited Accounts of the society for the financial year ended December 31, 2017 be approved and is approved by the 8th Annual General Meeting.
COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji whose deep articulate and philosophical address at the AGM received repeated thunderous ovations was formally presented with his award for exemplary leadership by PMAN, Edo State Chapter. On hand to present the award was the state Chairman, Comrade Willy Eghe Nova.
At the AGM, elections were conducted to fill vacant positions on the Board. At the very peaceful elections conducted by two top journalists, Mr. Biodun Kupoluyi and Mr. Shaibu Hussein, the following were elected to the COSON Board:
Sir Shina Peters, Mr. Ras Kimono Onwubayi, Ms. Kenny Saint Brown, Ms. Maureen Ejezie Uso, Mr Richard Cole, Mr. Uche Emeka Paul, Engr Sharon Esco Wilson and Evangelist Olusegun Omoyayi.
At the end of the eventful meeting, the COSON members sang, danced and celebrated a truly momentous event and cut a birthday cake in honour of reggae star, Ras Kimono, who just turned 60 years.
Friday, May 4, 2018
MEETING YOU: PUBLIC STATEMENT : COSON LAWYERS FORCEFULLY CHALLE...
MEETING YOU: PUBLIC STATEMENT : COSON LAWYERS FORCEFULLY CHALLE...: COSON LAWYERS FORCEFULLY CHALLENGE NCC DIRECTIVES AT THE COURT OF APPEAL Lawyers to Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) have swi...
PUBLIC STATEMENT : COSON LAWYERS FORCEFULLY CHALLENGE NCC DIRECTIVES AT THE COURT OF APPEAL
COSON LAWYERS FORCEFULLY CHALLENGE
NCC DIRECTIVES AT THE COURT OF APPEAL
Lawyers to Copyright Society of
Nigeria (COSON) have swiftly filed a new process at the Court of Appeal, Lagos
Division challenging the content of the letters from the Nigerian Copyright
Commission purportedly suspending the copyright licensing activities of the
society.
The Alliance Law Firm headed by
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Uche Val Obi filed the process within 24 hours
of the receipt of the letters from the NCC. COSON has urged the Court of Appeal
to make suspensory or dispositive mandatory orders against the NCC’s
directives, pending the determination of the pending appeal.
In a letter dated May 3, 2018 to the
NCC Director-General, Mr. Afam Ezekude, the COSON lawyers stated that the
development at the Court of Appeal lawfully apprehends the NCC directives
suspending the licence of COSCON to operate as a royalty collecting
organization.
The full text of the letter to Mr.
Ezekude reads as follows;
We remain counsel to Copyright
Society of Nigeria (COSON) and continue to act on its instructions. The
captioned letters, emanating from your offices have been passed over to us by
COSON, with instructions to respond to the same as permitted by law.
Recall that in our letter dated 16th
April, 2018 and sent to you, via email, ezekude@aol.com, on 19th April, 2018
and the hard copy received in your office on the 25th April, 2018, you were
reminded of the pending Motion on notice for injunction pending the determination
of Appeal at the Court of Appeal, seeking a number of injunctive reliefs
against your Commission, particularly, the prayer seeking to restrain your
Commission from acting in a manner that could embarrass the Court of Appeal,
alter the res, or otherwise overreaching and advising you against acting in any
manner that is capable of foisting a situation of complete helplessness and
fiat accompli on the Court of Appeal, prior to the hearing and determination of
that Motion.
We are shocked to read that in spite of
our guided advice, you led your Commission to act with gross impunity against
the Court of Appeal, when, according to your captioned letters, you
purportedly, on the advice of the Attorney General of the Federation of
Nigeria, suspended the operating licence of COSON, while the Motion for
Injunction, restraining your Commission from embarking on the same act is still
pending at the Court of Appeal. Could it be that the authorities of Ojukwu V.
Governor of Lagos State, as well as Iwuji V. Governor of Imo State, recommended
to you in our said letter of 16th April, 2018 were of no consequence to you?
Your act is even more worrisome when you attributed the impetus to so act to
the approval of the Chief Law Officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the
Honourable Attorney General of the Federation (HAGF), who is the Constitutional
custodian of rule of law in Nigeria. We wonder if you had indeed placed the
full facts of this matter before the HAGF in the first instance as it is
doubtful that he would have advised or supported your aforesaid acts and
directives, given the circumstances.
It might interest you to recall that
the reign of executive lawlessness and disregard for the rule of law has since
been consigned to our ugly past as a nation and we consider it a reminder of
that ugly and unfortunate past for any agency of government to invoke or
perpetrate any act, like your present act, which has a semblance of that
forbidden ugly past.
We have, on behalf of COSON, a law
abiding citizen, therefore filed another process at the Court of Appeal,
challenging the content of the two letters captioned above and urging that
Court to make suspensory or dispositive mandatory orders against your
Commission’s directives against COSON, pending the determination of the pending
appeal. This development therefore lawfully apprehends your directives
suspending the licence of COSON as a royalty collecting organization and
stopping it from operating its bank accounts as a going concern, amongst
others.
It remains to remind you that it is
an established principle of law that a citizen lawfully challenging an act or
directive of an institution against it in a court of law in exercise of its
constitutional rights cannot be expected to comply or obey directives, issued
in the course of a pending proceeding and while a motion specifically seeking
to restrain such directives is pending. Consequently, COSON has been legally
advised that it is not bound in law to give effect to your directives but to
await the decisions of the Court of Appeal on the pending applications for
mandatory and interlocutory injunctions pending before it in relation to your
acts, pronouncements, order and directives, as to do otherwise would be to
sacrifice its constitutional rights on the alter of your directives, acts, and
orders which constitute an affront and disrespect to the honourable Court of
Appeal now seized with the subject matter, more so, as the appeal has already
been entered.
Having stated the above, it is our
candid suggestion that a high level meeting of representatives of concerned
parties to the matter be held as early as possible to explore an amicable
resolution of the issues relating to this subject matter in the interest of all
stakeholders. If this is acceptable, kindly let us know how early we can have a
kick off meeting.
Please be guided accordingly.
Yours Faithfully,
Alliance Law Firm
Alliance Law Firm
Isaac U. Obi, FIMC Fred Obiejesi
Partner Senior Associate
Partner Senior Associate
Cc: Hon. Attorney General &
Minister For Justice
Ministry of Justice
Abuja
Ministry of Justice
Abuja
Cc: Copyright Society of Nigeria
(COSON)
COSON House
41, Oluwaleimu Street,
Off Allen Avenue
Ikeja, Lagos
COSON House
41, Oluwaleimu Street,
Off Allen Avenue
Ikeja, Lagos
Cc: Chairman, Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission
No. 5, Fomella Street
Off Adetokumbo Ademola Crescent
Wuse II, Abuja
No. 5, Fomella Street
Off Adetokumbo Ademola Crescent
Wuse II, Abuja
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