A civil
society and anti-corruption group, Peace & Development for Africa
Initiative (PDAI) has given the Director-General of the Nigerian Copyright
Commission (NCC), Mr. John Ohireime Asien, an ultimatum to resign his position
within 24 hours from the 31st of January 2020 or face prosecution.
This is
contained in a letter written on behalf of the group by their lawyers, Abuja
based Kaman Solicitors and signed by one John Obor, which was served on Mr.
Asein on Friday, January 31, 2020.
In the
letter, www.beats-onit.com can exclusively reveal, that the DG was
warned that if he did not immediately resign and refund the money allegedly
stolen by him, the group would without any further recourse to him, head to
court in search of justice against him. Already, a copy of the Originating
Summons to be filed at the Federal High Court Abuja, against Mr. Asein and
several other officers of the government has been forwarded to Mr. Asein.
The
allegations against Mr. John Asein include that after he retired from the
Federal Civil Service as a Director on December 31, 2015, Mr. Asein for months,
“illegally, unlawfully and fraudulently” continued to draw unearned salaries as
if he was still a public officer. In the letter by Kaman Solicitors, Mr. Asein
was told that his actions “in connivance with one Sylvester Aigboman, the
salary desk officer of Nigerian Copyright Commission is tantamount to broad day
robbery and a calculated attempt to unlawfully deplete Nigeria’s commonwealth
in breach of Civil Service Rules and the NCC Act”
Another of the
many allegations is that at the same time that Mr. John Asien has been in his
current position as the Director-General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission,
he maintained another position as Executive Director and Chief Executive
Officer of Reprographic Rights Society of Nigeria (REPRONIG), and has remained
sole signatory of the bank accounts of REPRONIG, a copyright collective
management organization regulated by the NCC from which Asein has been signing
out donor dollars in significant amounts.
Mr. Asein,
stated the letter, has at the same time been the Chief Executive Officer of
both the regulatory agency and the regulated organization, a bizarre case of
conflict of interest!
Mr. Asein is
also immersed in a scandal over how the whopping sum of N105 Million was spent
on the recently held 30th Anniversary celebration of the NCC when the
commission says it has no money to fight the massive piracy of the works of
Nigerian artistes, film makers and authors, the very reason the commission was
set up.
Recently,
another scandal broke out at the NCC over a contract signed by Mr. Asein with
the French donor agency, AFD and a Lagos based firm of solicitors in respect of
millions of Naira said to be for the study of the operations of copyright
collective management organizations in Nigeria. Nobody on the Board of the NCC,
the Ministry of Justice that supervises the NCC or the management of the NCC
appears to know the criteria for awarding the contract or how much is involved.
Only Mr. John Asein who claims to be a pastor, knows the details of the
agreement.
A senior
official at the NCC who wants to remain anonymous told www.beat-sonit.com, “the matter of our DG is a basket case.
He is leaking in every direction. Very soon, there will be no water left. I
don’t know who can save him. The truth is that the evidence against him is
overwhelming”.
www.beats-onit
sought Mr. Asein’s reaction to the allegations through WhatsApp and phone call
Tuesday afternoon. He stated that as a public servant, he could not react
without reference to his supervisory ministry, adding that it could not be
before he saw the specific allegations.
Said Asein:
You know as a public servant I won’t be able to react without reference to my
supervisory Ministry and not before I see the specific allegations. Please I
hope you do understand”.
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