NOW THAT PRETTY OKAFOR HAS FALLEN, WHO WILL BE NEXT?

SATURDAY BREAKFAST with TONY OKOROJI

NOW THAT PRETTY OKAFOR HAS FALLEN, WHO WILL BE NEXT?

BY PATRICK DOYLE (GUEST COLUMNIST)

It is no longer news that Hon Justice A.A. Oyebanji of the High Court of Lagos State, Ikeja, on Thursday, June 11, 2020, restrained the make believe factional president of PMAN, Mr. Pretty Okafor from further defamation of the character of my friend, Chief Tony Okoroji.

Delivering judgment in a libel action filed on May 22, 2018 by Chief Okoroji, Justice Oyebanji also ordered Pretty Okafor to pay Chief Okoroji the sum of Two Million Naira as General Damages for the defamation of his character.

One would think that by now the Okoroji naysayers would know better than to come at Tony with lies and malice, but no, they persist to trumpet falsehood relentlessly maybe in the forlorn hope that one lie will ultimately stick.

I have continued to publicly defend Chief Okoroji because I know the man, I know his values and I know that his integrity is unimpeachable. I know that very few Nigerians work as relentlessly and give of themself so selflessly towards the progress of any national endeavour. Chief Tony Okoroji continues to succeed where others have failed woefully because unlike many other Nigerians, he is not driven by love of money but by the love of country and the wellbeing of all. With his intellect, creativity, extensive contacts and enviable work ethic, he could easily be a millionaire in any currency several times over but chooses to dedicate himself to contributing to the public good.

Look at how he took a little known PMAN and in no time, turned it into one of the nation’s most vibrant and richest associations. Everyone must ask: where is PMAN today? The agitators simply took over the association, fought over the money left by Okoroji, destroyed the association and turned it into a joke!

Just look at what Okoroji has done with COSON in about ten years. It is nothing short of a miracle. Ten years ago, no one had heard of COSON. Since then, COSON has distributed hundreds of millions of naira to musicians across the country. Have you been to the magnificent edifice called COSON House in Ikeja built by the society under Okoroji's purposeful leadership without a single naira from the government, no donor money and no debt whatsoever? Many had sworn that collective management of copyright would never work in Nigeria. Did Tony Okoroji not prove all of them wrong? Have you read Tony Okoroji’s internationally celebrated book, Copyright & the New Millionaires? The depth of the book defines the man. As incredibly busy as he is, Tony Okoroji has every single week for more than seven years written his widely read syndicated column, Saturday Breakfast. Not one week has he failed.

Tony Okoroji is an unusual Nigerian. His brilliance, personal discipline, unquenchable self-belief and never-say-die spirit can be intimidating and threatening to small people. His work ethic is such that whatever he touches seems to turn to gold and for this, many in the industry celebrate him. Fueled by greed and envy, small minded people never stop trying to cut him down. They tried to do it with THISDAY newspaper and Okoroji went to court and got a N40 million judgment against THISDAY. Charly Boy tried it and Okoroji got judgment against Charles Oputa. I was present in Okoroji’s office when Charly Boy came to plead with him. Femi Lasode got into the game, not only did Okoroji get judgment against him, Lasode’s entire possessions were confiscated by court bailiffs and his life has never been the same since. They even tried to use The Sun newspapers to damage Okoroji. When Okoroji sued The Sun, the Sun management had to settle out of court.

In an apology published in Vanguard Newspaper of November 19, 2012 and signed by the editor, the newspaper wrote, “On October 14 2011, we published an article titled “Okoroji must account for N3 million for Essien-Igbokwe Burial Funds” on our internet site, www.vanguardngr.com and on page 31 of Vanguard of the same date. We have since discovered the publication as incorrect and as such retract the said
news publication in its entirety.

“We therefore tender an unreserved apology to Chief Tony Okoroji, Chairman Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) and regret any injury the said publication must have caused him as we hold him in high esteem”.

The above words were published by Vanguard as part of an out of court settlement in a libel suit filed by Chief Okoroji against the newspaper with respect to false allegations made by Ms. Onyeka Onwenu against Chief Tony Okoroji and published in Vanguard shortly after the burial of late Christy Essien-Igbokwe.
Ms. Onyeka Onwenu went on to lose a libel suit brought against her by Chief Okoroji over the same issue and huge damages were awarded against her.

Very few Nigerians have been attacked with falsehood like Chief Tony Okoroji. No Nigerian, living or dead has won more defamation cases than Tony Okoroji. No serious person can tell you that this great Nigerian is ineffective. This is the man whose efforts contributed immensely to make both the Copyright Act and the Nigerian Copyright Commission possible. This is the same man that created and produced the iconic and breath taking Nigerian Music Awards that brought the nation’s president and his wife, state governors, ambassadors from diverse countries and stars from all over the world to rub shoulders with Nigerian artistes at an entertainment event. It was Okoroji’s NMA that began the entertainment award culture in Nigeria.

They cannot match Tony Okoroji so they try to destroy him with blatant falsehood and multiple defamation. Tony Okoroji is Nigeria’s No. 1 expert in the intricate subject of copyright, a subject which he continues to work on with so much passion. Please ask anyone who has worked with him about this man’s incredible work ethic and ability to bring diverse people together for the public good and to constantly create something out of nothing. His work is very important for the future of a lot of young Nigerians and indeed the country.

On Thursday, Tony Okoroji won yet another libel suit, this time against Pretty Okafor. The loquacious Pretty Okafor who calls himself President of PMAN seems to have been obsessed by an insatiable desire to destroy Okoroji. It appears that he joined the gang that waited for Okoroji to build COSON House, make COSON an international brand with hundreds of millions of Naira in the bank. Then, they conspired and struck to chase Okoroji out of COSON and to feast on what he has built. When their coup failed, they decided to destroy Okoroji and COSON.

O la-la, the chicken has come home to roost and the boastful Pretty Okafor has fallen yakata. Nigerians will recall that I told everyone how this will end.

Who will be next?

- Patrick Harry Doyle

Vanguard News is a daily News publication In Nigeria covering Latest news, Breaking News, Politics, Relationships, Entertaiment and Sports

MUSICIANS GET 50 MILLION NAIRA CORONAVIRUS RELIEF FROM COSON TO CUSHION THE ONGOING LOCKDOWN

BREAKING NEWS!

50 MILLION NAIRA CORONAVIRUS RELIEF FROM COSON TO CUSHION THE ONGOING LOCKDOWN

Starting from Tuesday evening, thousands of musicians across the country would receive bank alerts as Anti-Corona Emergency Relief Distribution from COSON, Nigeria’s biggest and most respected Copyright Collective Management Organization. The distribution is in reaction to the hardship and distress being faced by many musicians in Nigeria who have been affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the current lockdown which has also stopped entertainment activities across the country.

For the distribution, the COSON Board has approved the sum of 50 Million Naira to be shared amongst about 4,500 members on the society’s register as at May 19, 2019. In the midst of the current

crisis and following several S.O.S. messages from COSON members facing deep hardship all over the nation, the COSON Board over the weekend, met online in an emergency session and after vigorous discussions, approved the distribution.

Speaking on the development, COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji said, “I have personally received calls from several members of COSON who are desperate for immediate assistance of any kind. Other members of our Board have received similar messages. At a time like this, COSON must be responsible and responsive to the needs of our members and we should do everything we can to help them wade through these hard times. That is the very reason why COSON was set up. I am proud of the quick response of members of the COSON Board who showed great understanding that we must be our brothers’ keeper at a time like this.

“Starting immediately, with the co-operation of the banks, each qualified member of COSON will receive a modest sum of eleven thousand naira in what we have termed Anti-Coronavirus Emergency Relief (ACER) General Distribution. We are able to do this because of the deft management of our resources. We wish we could do more. I however believe that most people are aware of what we have been through in recent times. Let me thank the COSON management team of Vincent Adawaisi, Isa Aruna and Anthony Imuse who burnt the midnight oil to ensure that the decision of the Board is executed with dispatch”.

On outstanding Specific Distributions, the COSON Chairman said, “Every member of the Board is very eager that all outstanding specific distributions should be paid without any delay. The issue was prominent in our discussions on the emergency relief distribution. While the Board and the General Assembly have approved the specific distributions, it is common knowledge that COSON funds in two banks are frozen. The money for the specific distributions is domiciled in the frozen accounts. The money is safe. Not one Naira is missing. It is also common knowledge that we have gone to court to have the accounts unfrozen and immediately that happens, the money will be paid. In any case, all those entitled to Specific distribution will also receive the Anti-Coronavirus Emergency Relief (ACER) General Distribution.

“It is unfortunate that it is some of our colleagues that requested the banks to freeze the accounts which has brought this suffering to innocent COSON members and even to those who took the action. That is why we need to be very careful about what we say and what we do.”

“I hope that we will use this very challenging period to think deeply. We have built COSON to be there for musicians through thick and thin. We work hard to ensure that COSON takes care of musicians while they are alive and celebrates them even in death. Has anyone forgotten how in an unprecedented manner we buried the late Ras Kimono like a king?

Said the COSON Chairman, “Some people may think that because things are going well for them today, they will never need COSON. I have been in the industry long enough to know that the day will come when each of us needs an institution like COSON. When I hear people in our industry call on government to clamp down on COSON or that those who owe us money should not pay us, I ask why anyone would choose to urinate into a well from which he might soon draw water to drink when he is desperately thirsty”

Concluded Chief Okoroji, “I know that I cannot please everyone but I am working hard every day to lift up the musicians of Nigeria, promote and defend our industry and provide visible solutions to the problems of each of us. I have absolutely no interest in the cantankerous name calling and rabid character assassination which many appear to dwell in and which do not provide even one cup of garri for any Nigerian artiste or one cube of Maggi for his pot of soup”.

FOR COSON: PM Walker

COSON...Let The Music Pay!

10 BILLION NAIRA LAWSUIT ON NIGERIAN COPYRIGHT COMMISSION (NCC)

Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), the nation’s biggest copyright collective management organization, has gone to the Federal High Court to seek damages of eight billion naira from the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) for “the undemocratic, unlawful and unconstitutional ‘suspension’ of the approval and operating licence of the Plaintiff” and another two billion naira “for the significant loss of Reputation and Goodwill suffered by the Plaintiff and arising from the massive publicity sustained by the NCC against COSON following the undemocratic, unlawful and unconstitutional ‘suspension’ of the approval and operating licence of the Plaintiff and the unlawful directive that the bank accounts of the Plaintiff be frozen.”

In its 63 paragraph Statement of Claim in suit No FHC/L/CS/425/2020 filed by renowned Lagos lawyer, Mr. James Ononiwu of Whitedove Solicitors, COSON pleads that It is a fact that the Copyright Act in Section 39 (2) gives the Defendant the power to approve collecting societies but nowhere under the law is the NCC given the power to suspend, revoke or in any way restrict the approval given to a collecting society or embark on an audit of a collecting society or direct the freeze/restriction of the bank accounts of a collecting society without an order of court.

COSON which is Africa’s fastest growing CMO with thousands of members across Nigeria, also pleads that while the Copyright Collective Management Organization Regulations (2007), made by the NCC, states that it has been made in exercise of the powers conferred on the NCC by section 39 (7) of the Copyright Act, the regulations are over reaching of the law because nowhere in Section 39 of the Copyright Act or any other law is the commission given the power to suspend, revoke or in any way restrict the approval given to a collecting society or embark on an audit of a collecting society or direct the freeze/restriction of the bank accounts of a collecting society without an order of court.

COSON said that the NCC has become a MONSTER, deploying the wide powers it has unlawfully assumed to decimate the stakeholders it was set up to protect and that in its actions, the commission has been the law maker, the accuser, the judge and the jury in its own case without COSON being offered any opportunity for fair hearing.

COSON has therefore asked the Federal high Court to declare that the provisions in the Copyright (Collective Management Organizations) Regulations 2007, made by the NCC, by which the NCC has assumed the power to unilaterally suspend or revoke the licence of an approved Collecting Society or to require an approved collecting society to apply to the NCC to renew its licence are undemocratic, unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void.

Similarly, COSON which has reciprocal representation agreements with about 150 collective management organizations in every continent around the world has asked the Federal High Court to declare that the provision in the Copyright (Collective Management Organizations) Regulations 2007 by which the NCC has assumed the power to order the audit of a Copyright Collective Management Organization without the authorization of the society’s Annual General Meeting and without a court order is undemocratic, unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void. Also requested is a declaration that the directive by the NCC without an order of court that the bank accounts of COSON be frozen, is ultra vires the powers of the NCC, illegal, unlawful, null and void.

Furthermore, COSON is seeking a perpetual injunction restraining the commission, its officers, agents, servants or privies from relying on the provisions of the Copyright Collective Management Organizations Regulations 2007 to take any steps purporting to revoke the operating licence/ approval of COSON or in any way or manner disturbing/continuing to disturb or preventing/continuing to prevent COSON from lawfully enforcing the constitutional rights of its members, affiliates, assignees and reciprocal representation partners or interfering/continuing to interfere with the internal management, operations, funds, audits or bank accounts of the Plaintiff or disturbing/continuing to disturb or preventing/continuing to prevent COSON, its members, affiliates, assignees and reciprocal representation partners from earning income and sustaining themselves with their Intellectual Property, without an order of court.

It will be recalled that at a massively attended world press conference held at COSON House, Ikeja days before the suit was filed, COSON called for the immediate resignation of Mr. John Asein, the Director-General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission who is alleged to be immersed in rabid corruption. At the Press Conference addressed by the CMOs chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji, he said, “the Nigerian Copyright Commission has brought shame to the Nigerian nation. We therefore on this 10th day of March 2020 call on the Federal Government of Nigeria to call the Nigerian Copyright Commission to order. We demand of the Buhari Administration to order the Nigerian Copyright Commission to publish a bold and unreserved apology to the thousands of members of COSON, the entire Nigerian creative community and the international copyright family for the terrible misuse and abuse of power and to make appropriate restitution to COSON”

NCC’S OBI EZEILO LOSES ROUND ONE IN 100 MILLION NAIRA SLANDER ACTION FILED BY OKOROJI

A Lagos High Court Judge, Mr. Justice A.M. Lawal this Monday, January 13, 2020, bluntly told Mr. Obi Ezeilo, a senior official of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), that he cannot use any lawyer in the employ of the Nigerian Copyright Commission to defend himself in the =N=100 Million slander action brought against him by Chief Tony Okoroji, Chairman, Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON).

Mr. Ezeilo who is a lawyer, had announced himself and one Abiola Adekunle, another lawyer employed by the Nigerian Copyright Commission as representing him in the SUIT NO ID/ADR/2389/2019 in which Chief Okoroji has asked the court for an order mandating Ezeilo to retract the “false and slanderous” statements made by him against Chief Okoroji on October 25, 2018 and issue an apology to Chief Okoroji prominently published in four (4) recognized national daily newspapers. Chief Tony Okoroji has also asked for General Damages for slander in the sum of N100,000,000.00 (One Hundred Million Naira) and a perpetual injunction restraining Mr. Ezeilo, Ezeilo’s servants, privies or agents or otherwise called, from further uttering or publishing or causing to be published the said words or any words defamatory of Chief Okoroji.

Reacting to Ezeilo’s announcement of his legal team, lawyer to Chief Tony Okoroji, Mr. Omo-Elo Akokaike protested vehemently and told the court that while Mr. Ezeilo may defend himself in the matter in which he is sued in his personal capacity, he cannot engage the services of lawyers under the employ of the Nigerian Copyright Commission and paid by the Federal Government to defend himself. He insisted that what Mr. Ezeilo was trying to do was unknown to law and legal practice in Nigeria.

Despite what turned out to be a prolonged and hot argument by Mr. Ezeilo that he is Head of Prosecution at the Nigerian Copyright Commission and that at the relevant time he was acting in his official capacity, Justice Lawal sided with Chief Okoroji’s lawyer and determined that Ezeilo had been brought to court in his personal capacity and that he cannot use any government lawyer to defend himself.

The Judge adjourned the matter to March 7 to deal with any pending applications while immediately sending the case to the ADR Track for possible resolution before the adjourned date.

Present in court were Chief Tony Okoroji and renowned COSON Lawyer, Mr. James Ononiwu of Whitedove Solicitors.