CRISIS AT COPYRIGHT COMMISSION ESCALATES AS STAFF LOCK OUT DG, AFAM EZEKUDE, ON CHARGES OF MASSIVE EMBEZLEMENT OF FUNDS

The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, the Nigerian Copyright Commission unit, an affiliate of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), this Monday began a massive demonstration at the Federal Secretariat Abuja headquarters of the commission as they locked out their Director-General, Mr. Afam Ezekude. The visibly angry placard-carrying staff of the commission with colleagues from TUC and NLC sang repeatedly and danced in a frenzy.

The demonstrators who brought activities to a halt at the sprawling Federal Secretariat complex, repeated their call for the immediate probe, prosecution and imprisonment of Mr. Ezekude.

The Senior Staff Association which says that it has in the recent past petitioned various anti-graft and security agencies in the country including EFCC, DSS and ICPC with irrefutable evidence of the rabid corruption engineered by Mr. Ezekude, proclaimed that their members do not want Ezekude anywhere near the commission again.

The protesting staff said that they have totally lost confidence in the leadership of Mr. Afam Ezekude who according to them has reduced the Nigerian Copyright Commission which is an enforcement agency set up to protect and promote the Nigerian Creative Industry to an agency for the private looting of funds thereby rendering the commission comatose.

According to the union, they have resolved that they can no longer guarantee industrial harmony and peace in the commission except Mr. Ezekude who they say left London as a taxi driver 7 years ago to Nigeria to assume the position of DG, is arrested and prosecuted immediately. The NCC staff vowed that their action will continue until appropriate action is taken against Mr. Ezekude.

The DG NCC inherited a comatose Commission 7 years ago and has transformed it into an example for other agencies to follow. His accomplishments in 7 years have received commendation from

Both local and international stakeholders. He has raised the bar in copyright enforcement, prosecution and administration like no other DG before him did. His record on enforcement and prosecution are unparalleled.

For example in 7 years the DG has carried out hundreds of anti piracy operations leading to the seizure of over 10billion naira worth of pirated items. In addition he in collaboration with the Nigerian Customs Service confiscated 28 containers load of pirated goods coming from China and the Far East.

Aside from that, he has successfully prosecuted copyright pirated and secured 58 criminal convictions with maximum prison sentences without option of fine. Prior to his coming on board as DG only about 3 convictions had been secured.

He set up the first copyright e-registration portal in Africa which has been commended by the US copyright office as superior to their own.

Recently, he ratified four copyright international treaties, two if nigeria had signed up to over 20 years ago but were never ratified by any of his predecessors. He successfully deposited the instruments of ratification at the last Wipo general assemble in Geneva in October 2017. Wipo commended the DG for this great achievement which is designed to protect the work Nigerian copyright owners beyond our shores and deal with the issue of internet piracy which has become the trend in this age of digital technologies. Kudos to Ezekude for his great strides in protecting our local copyright industry.

The DG has also gone further to introduce a new copyright legislation which has been approved by the FEC last December allowing the President to forward it to the National Assembly for enactment. It will interest anyone to know that the new copyright bill is a revolutionary piece of legislation that addresses copyright piracy in the 21st century.

The allegations of embezzlement of public funds being levied against the DG are all false. These allegations have all been investigated by all the anti graft agencies in the country and found to be unsubstantiated and the DG cleared of all of them. In fact, the DG has received written clearance on the allegations.

The DG has vowed to continue with the good work he has started until his term comes to an end in December 2018.

His detractors will try, but they will always fail as the DG will remain focussed on the job ahead in particular working with the National Assembly and stakeholders to ensure the passage of the new copyright bill.These and all other accomplishments of the DG are not too bad for someone who has been described as a “taxi driver” in the uk before he was appointed DG of the copyright Commission. I’ll leave you to work that one out. The success of COSON as a collective management organisation over the last 7 years is down to the effort of DG, Afam Ezekude. COSON had not collected 1 naira before Afam Ezekude came on board. However, the DG threw all his support behind COSON as it was being strangled by MCSN which was unapproved at the time. However, Afam Ezekude worked tirelessly to make sure that COSON being the only registered CMO for music and sound recordings at the time made an impact to the lives of musicians in Nigeria. Afam Ezekude was instrumental in getting all the companies with which MCSN had reciprocal agreements to cancel those agreements and sign up with COSON. That is exactly what happened and COSON has flourished since then. It was the same Afam Ezekude who carried out a raid at the premises of MCSN and arrest their officers including the Chairman, Mayo Ayilaran. They were eventually charged to court for operating a CMO without licence from the NCC. All these the DG did to ensure the survival of coson.

Chief Okoroji has a lot to thank the DG for, but rather he is waging a war against the DG. He will most definitely lose the war as the decision taken by the Ncc recently in relation to the internal wrangling a on the Board of COSON is the right decision and Afam Ezekude will be vindicated. We all know that Chief Okoroji sponsored the recent protest by the association of senior civil servants of Nigeria at the fed sec, abuja that led to the disruption of the work of the Commission yesterday 12 th March. Chief Okoroji should comply with the directive of the Ncc and stop crying foul.