The Musical Copyright Society Nigeria, MCSN, has filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Lagos to enforce its fundamental and constitutional rights and those of its officials, asking for an award of N100 Million as damages against the Nigerian Copyright Commission, NCC and 4 others.\u00a0 It has also demanded that the NCC should within seven days return all materials, files, documents and computers illegally removed from its offices in a recent raid otherwise it would be claiming One Million Naira per day for the number of days which the materials remain in the custody of the NCC.<\/p>\n
In Suit No. FHC\/L\/CS\/1163\/12 filed on\u00a0 3rd October 2012, MCSN and its seven other officials, namely, Olukayode Ajayi, Benson Yusuf, Omolara Banjo, Halim Mohammed, Gladys Njoku, Louis Udoh and Mayo Ayilaran are asking for the following reliefs among others: An Order of perpetual injunction restraining the Respondents whether by themselves, officers,
\nagents and privies from further harassing, intimidating, detaining or further arresting the Applicants or any of its officers or agents in the course of performing their lawful and legal duties and administering their property rights, an order of the Honourable Court awarding compensation for the Applicants and against the Respondents (jointly and severally) in
\nthe sum N50 Million for unlawful disruption and interference in 1st Applicant\u2019s lawful businesses and an order of the Honourable Court awarding compensation for the Applicants and against the Respondents in the sum of N50 Million (jointly and severally) for threat to arrest, unlawful arrest, detention, intimidation and harassment of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th 7th and 8th Applicants.<\/p>\n
Other Defendants in the suit apart from the Nigerian Copyright Commission are the Director General of the NCC, Afam Ezekude), Mr. Amodu Augustine Alewu, Mr. Mathew D. J. Ojo and the Inspector General of Police.<\/p>\n
The suit was filed on behalf MCSN and its officials by Dr. Ope Banwo of Banwo & Igbokwe (Solicitors) and a hearing date was being expected.<\/p>\n
In a related development, MCSN through its lawyers has demanded the NCC to immediately within seven (7) days release and return all the files, documents, computers and materials removed and taken away from its offices by the NCC during its raid of 18 September 2012.<\/p>\n
In a strongly worded letter written on its behalf by its Solicitor, Dr. Ope Banwo, MCSN contended that the raid on its offices and removal of files, computers and materials from there were illegal, as no provision in the Copyright Act gives the NCC such powers.\u00a0 MCSN further contended that NCC cannot rely on Section 25 of the Act because it did not carry out its
\nraid with any court order or warrant as required in law, neither could it (NCC) avail itself of Section 38 because it did not provide for removal of materials from any premise where NCC carries out a raid.\u00a0 Section 38 of the Act provides that NCC\u2019s copyright inspectors can only examine, take photographs and make analysis of materials and make a report to be
\nendorsed both by the NCC inspectors and the person concerned.<\/p>\n
All these were not complied with by the officials of the NCC and its actions are in clear breach of the law.\u00a0 MCSN further contended in its letter of demand that the judgment of Federal High Court in Suit No. FHC\/L\/CS\/35\/08 of July 25, 2011 had declared such actions by the NCC illegal and unconstitutional and wonders how an agency under the office of the Honourable Attorney
\nGeneral of the Federation and Minister of Justice could be flouting valid and subsisting court judgements and orders vis-\u00e0-vis the directive of the Honourable Minister as to the obedience of judicial decisions.<\/p>\n
MCSN further gave notice that should NCC and its relevant officials fail to release and return the materials within the time given, it shall be claiming N1 million per day for the number of days which the materials remain in the custody of the NCC and the said officials.<\/p>\n
It would be recalled that after similar raid and removal of materials from MCSN\u2019s offices in 2007, the Society instituted a court action, Suit No. FHC\/L\/CS\/35\/08 for the enforcement of its fundamental rights under the Constitution and got judgment on July 15, 2011 with a N40 Million damages awarded to it and its officials.\u00a0 An absolute order of garnishee was
\ngranted to MCSN in July 2012 to get the awarded sum from any bank holding an account for the NCC.\u00a0 It is virtually the same situation that is playing out in this present case and the outcome is being awaited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Musical Copyright Society Nigeria, MCSN, has filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Lagos to enforce its fundamental and constitutional rights and those of its officials, asking for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n