PMAN In another round of commotion

By Our ReporterMar 19, 2020, 17:07 pm2

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By Charles Okogene

Just when one thinks that peace has finally come to the house of Performing Musicians Employers’ Association of Nigeria (PMAN), following the court judgment, which Mr. Pretty Okafor, said has legitimise his own faction of the association that included the likes of Sunny Neji, that is when the association is faced with another round of bickering.

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This time, the fresh fire that is capable of razing down the house of PMAN, is coming from the president of the Creative Industry Group (CIG), Mr. Felix Duke, who has been criss-crossing the entire country empowering younger members of CIG with skills and recognising the older ones with an award.

“Which court recognise Pretty as president of PMAN,” Duke asked.

“Ask him what he has done for PMAN in the last six years he has presided over the association. Who has he empowered or helped? Instead he tried to discredit CIG by saying that the group belongs to PMAN. That the trademark of CIG is his.

“I am ready to go anywhere with him to prove that PMAN has no hand in CIG… I have trademarked CIG since 2018 …if na court we are ready for him. Pretty must be stopped now now,” he said.

Okafor had in one of his numourous posting on his Facebook timeline wrote as follow:

“NOTICE OF TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT

March 13, 2020

“It has come to our attention that a particular group of persons in and outside the Nigerian Creative Industry are “PASSING OFF” using the registered Trademark “CREATIVE INDUSTRY GROUP “ with acronym (CIG) with the intent of deceiving and defrauding the General Public for personal gain.

“BE ADVISED that the Mark “ CREATIVE INDUSTRY GROUP, with acronym “CIG” with it’s LOGO , likeness or expression thereof is owned exclusively by the PERFORMING MUSICIANS EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (PMAN)

“Therefore, BE WARNED that anyone that does business with the aforementioned perpetrators without the express written approval of PMAN under the Leadership of Pretty Okafor, does so at his or her own Risk.

“The leader of the group ( Name withheld) is hereby directed to delete all social media pages and whatsapp groups using the Mark “Creative Industry Group (CIG) and it’s logo within 72 hours, and to cease from doing business and receiving monies from unsuspecting members of the public, using the trade name “CREATIVE INDUSTRY GROUP “ (CIG) failure to comply will result in immediate legal action against all perpetrators.

PRETTY OKAFOR
PMAN PRESIDENT,” he wrote.

The above signaled the genesis of his disagreement with Duke and CIG.

However, If you think that Duke is the only one questioning Okafor’s legitimacy as the president of PMAN, then read on. Some time-tested musicians like Orits Willik, Luciano of Question Mark among others, are also up in arms against Okafor and his group. In fact, they have gone to court challenging his purported claim to the presidency of the association.

Dr. Obi Okwudili Cashmir, better known in the music industry as Voombastic whose group of musicians are leading a faction of PMAN, is also in court suing Okafor for threatening to dissolve state chapters of PMAN that fail to reciognise him as PMAN president or fail take take directive from him. In one of his releases asking his members to disregard any directive from Okafor, Okwudili had written ” … you are aware that a case is pending in court and that forms 47 and 48 have been served on Pretty Okafor for contempt of court for parading himself as president …”

Like Okafor, Voombastic is also laying claim to the presidency of the association.

However, while all of these are going on, some government officials are busy hobnobbing with the man in the centre of it all, Okafor.

One of such official is the embattled Director General of National Copyrigh Commission (NCC), Mr. John Asien, whom Okafor visited recently and pledged that PMAN will partner the copyright regulator in its fight to eradicate piracy in the country.

Okafor wrote on his Facebook Timeline after his visit to NCC Abuja office.

Okafor (second from right} with NCC (second from left} after a recent visit

Same way he has visited the officials the federal ministry of information and health and promised them that he will mobilise musicians into the fight against the spread of Coronavirus in the country through regular hand washing.”PMAN NEWS UPDATE:
March 18, 2020MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND MINISTRY OF HEALTH PARTNERS mom PMAN TO SENSITIZE MUSICIANS ON COVID19The Federal Ministry of Information and the Federal Ministry of Health has initiated a partnership with the Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria (PMAN) to activate the dissemination of crucial information to Musicians and professionals in the creative Arts about the novel CORVID19 Virus.
Timely access to important information about preventive measures is key to stopping further proliferation of the deadly virus.

The PMAN President, Pretty Okafor commends the ministry of Information and the ministry of health for collaborating with PMAN in putting up these important awareness programs in such times as this.

The National Working Committee (NWC) of PMAN will ensure that timely information from the Ministry of Health will be channeled directly to all musicians in all the 36 states with active PMAN chapters.

More Details will be announced on PMAN official Social media Pages and website soon .

However, in the interim all Musicians are advised to comply with the Travel advisory issued by the Federal Government’s COVID19 Task Force.” he wrote on his Facebook timeline .

Okafor seem to have developped a thick sick to the many oppositions against him, however, one thing that is crystal clear and which he may not know, is that he is ‘presiding’ over a troubled house and as long as that situation persists, PMAN will not make progress.

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