A splinter group of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) ,led by Mr. Efe Omorogbe, has described as fake news a statement credited to COSON which said that a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has declared the suspension of its licence by Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) as null and void.
In a statement signed by Mr. Omorogbe and circulated through WhatApps, the group said “When you resort to publishing fake news to deliberately mislead stakeholders and members of the public just so that you can perpetuate the illegality of your position, there must be consequences. Tony Okoroji, Azeezat Allen and John Uduegbunam must resign as directors with immediate effect to save COSON from further ridicule and looming extinction. Anyone capable of such unethical and fraudulent conduct whether in employee or management board member capacity is unfit to work or serve in collective management. #SaveCOSONFromOkoroji. #AuditCOSON.”
Earlier, Mr. Okereke had on September 5 2018 announced on his Facebook page thus: “HOT BREAKING NEWS!!!
THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT HAS TODAY ORDERED THE NIGERIAN COPYRIGHT COMMISSION TO SUSPEND ALL ACTIONS, PROCEEDINGS AND PROCESSES RELATING TO THE PURPORTED SUSPENSION OF THE LICENCE OF COPYRIGHT SOCIETY OF NIGERIA (COSON) AND THE FREEZING OF COSON’S BANK ACCOUNTS.”
But like the Omorogbe group, the NCC has also denied any knowledge of the judgement and insisted that the suspension on COSON’s licence still remain in force.
Below is the statement of NCC and that of Mr. Okereke.
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With the above scenario who then do stakeholders in the business of copyright believe? NCC, COSON or Omorogbe and co.
The issue becomes more worrisome as COSON is yet, as at press time, to serve NCC with a copy of the judgement or provide the press with it or issue a detailed press release as regards the judgement as it used to do in time past.
Even efforts by this reporter to get a detailed press release or the judgment on the matter has not been successful as Mr. Okereke insisted that such is not available yet and promised to make it available when he gets it.
However, that also do not mean that the news of the judgement is fake or that the claim of NCC that it is not aware of the judgement, which has prompted the reaction from Omorogbe’s splinter group, is not correct going by the fact that it takes days to obtain a true certified copy of a judgment.
Whatever be the case, the confusion is not healthy for the copyright community as it is providing right exploiters opportunity to continue to exploit rights without payment.
