After weeks of massive protests by members of Copyright Society
of Nigeria (COSON) across the country against what the society has termed the
meddling of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, in the
Nigerian music industry, the case file in Suit No FHC/L/CS/1259/2017, filed by
COSON against the AGF and the MCSN syndicate, has finally been returned to
Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos for judgment to be
delivered.
Justice Ibrahim Buba is now scheduled to deliver the
long-awaited judgment on Tuesday, February 13 in Lagos.
Judgment in the suit was initially slated for December 6, 2017.
Following dramatic events, the judgment was adjourned till December 14 when the
judge said that the judgment would be delivered ‘come rain, come sunshine’.
On December 14, 2017, however, the judgment was still not read
as the judge announced that the case file had been taken from him and that he
had no choice but adjourn the judgment indefinitely.
While all these were going on, a major attempt was made to
unseat Chief Tony Okoroji, the arrowhead of the case and chairman of COSON by a
clique within his Board said to have been engineered from outside. However, on
December 19, 2017, the COSON General Assembly met in Lagos and overwhelmingly
voted to restore Chief Okoroji to his position as chairman.
Chief Okoroji has since then coordinated the biggest protest in
the history of the Nigerian creative industry with angry music industry
stakeholders demonstrating at different Federal High Court locations around the
country. COSON has also called for the resignation of the Acting Chief Judge of
the Federal High Court, Justice Abdul
Kafarati, for his alleged role in the matter.
Stressing the resolve of COSON at a recent World Press
Conference held at COSON House in Ikeja, Chief Tony Okoroji, the COSON Chairman
said, “We will continue to protest until the arm twisting and blackmailing of
Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos is brought to an end, the
Federal High Court of Nigeria is left free to do justice to all men as the
judges deem fit and the Attorney–General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami
is stopped from further meddling in the affairs of the Nigerian music industry.
“We will deploy our voices, drums, cymbals, trumpets, guitars
and every other musical instrument available to us and we will employ our
talents in our protest until the whole world hears us.
“We will continue this
indefinite protest until the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) is returned to
the supervision of the Minister charged with responsibility for culture as
expressly provided in Section 51 of the Nigerian Copyright Act”.
Reacting to the return
of the case file, a restrained Chief Tony Okoroji said “There is no question
that this is a major victory for COSON and the Nigerian creative community.
Everyone however knows that our objective is not just judgement but justice. We
are not naïve. Everyone must ask why they are so scared of unfettered judgement
in this matter. After many weeks of arm-twisting, high level manipulation and
blackmail, we must be prepared for every outcome. Regardless of what Justice
Buba decides, we will not go to sleep. We will not go to sleep until we stop
the attempt to turn the
Nigerian music industry into a gold mine belonging to no one, from where those
who have made no investments nor contributions can cart away illicit billions
while the true creators and investors languish in penury. Let the whole world know that we will not
rest until the Malami MCSN Mafia (MMM), is finally banished from our industry
and peace, stability and progress are restored”
FOR COSON
