COSON accuses NCC DG of corruption, asks him to resign

BY OUR EDITOR

The Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) has accused the Director-General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), Mr John Ohireme Asein, of corruption, bordering on conflict of interest and outright stealing of public funds.

COSON, Nigeria’s biggest Copyright Collective Management Organisation in music and sound recordings, alleged that months after he retired as a civil servant from the copyright commission, Asein had continued to draw salary from the federal government agency in charge of intellectual property administration and regulation.

The society also alleged that Asein, while the Director-General of NCC, had continued to serve as the Executive Director of Reprographic Rights Organisation of Nigeria (REPRONIG), a collective management organisation (for authors of literary works) regulated by the NCC.

COSON, which spoke through its chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji, at a world press conference on Tuesday, at COSON House, Lagos, subsequently called on Asein to immediately resign his appointment as the Director-General of NCC.

“If Mr. John Asein does not resign, COSON is calling on the Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs Folashade Yemi Esan; the Chairman, ICPC,  Prof Bolaji Owasanoye; the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami; Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof Itse Sagay, to ensure that Mr Asein is suspended from office, properly investigated and prosecuted so that President Buhari’s anti-corruption stand is not seen by the world as a joke,” Okoroji advised.

He warned that if the aforementioned heads of the federal government agencies and minister fail to act on COSON’s demand, the society would take it upon itself to obtain the necessary fiat to “forcefully” prosecute the NCC DG.

Okoroji said rather than wage war against the piracy of works of Nigerian creative industry and other types of copyright infringement for which the organisation was set up, NCC had become a “den of thieves and the crucible of scams.”

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According to Chief Okoroji, when in January 2019, it was announced that Asein had been appointed Director-General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, many hoped that the fortunes of the NCC would change and the instability in the commission would come to an end.

“Unfortunately, that hope has been dashed,” he regretted.

Okoroji said that COSON had “ample evidence” to show that the NCC DG may have continued to collect salaries from the Nigerian Copyright Commission several months into 2016 after retiring as staff of the commission on December 31, 2015.

It was alleged that for the months of January, February, March and April 2016, “Asein unlawfully earned income of N502,271.00 in each of the months from the Federal Government.”

Stating that the behaviour was clearly fraudulent and criminal, Okoroji said that Asein deserved to be fully investigated and if he found liable, prosecuted.

COSON also alleged that more than one year after he assumed office as DG of the NCC, Asein was still listed on www.repronig.ng, the website of REPRONIG, as Executive Director of REPRONIG.

Said Okoroji: “In effect, Mr Asein is at the same time both the Head of REPRONIG, an organization regulated by the NCC and Head of the regulatory agency, the NCC! This is a bewildering example of conflict of interest with extensive consequences. There is no question that this deserves to be investigated and the investigation must cover how the millions of Naira in grants to REPRONIG by different donor agencies have been disbursed by John Ohireime Asein, sole signatory to the REPRONIG account.”

COSON further alleged that at the same time the DG worked as a public servant, he was also a Director of a private company known as Books & Gavel Ltd., a practice prohibited under the Public Service Rules.