Lawyers to Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) , have demanded a retraction of recent statements made by Ope Banwo against COSON and Chief Okoroji.
They have also demanded that Banwo tender a conspicuous and unreserved apology to Tony Okoroji and COSON on Facebook and four Nigerian newspapers, namely, the Guardian, the Sun, the Punch and Vanguard within seven days.
The lawyers have furthermore demanded that Banwo pay the sum of N100,000,000 (One Hundred Million Naira) to Chief Okoroji and another N100,000,000 (One Hundred Million Naira) to COSON for what the lawyers have described as significant injury caused by Mr. Banwo to Chief Okoroji and COSON.
A letter dated May 5, 2017 sent to Banwo and signed by Lagos lawyer, Justin Ige of Creative Legal, Seun Omotoba & Co, says: ‘We refer to your widely circulated publication on Facebook titled “TIME To Blow Whistle On Toni Okoroji: How Did Tony Okoroji spend over N300,000,000 in Copyright Royalties collected on behalf of Nigerian artistes” and other vile statements you have repeatedly published in the last fortnight against our clients. ‘By the said publications, you have made several blatantly false, baseless and malicious statements including innuendos which were clearly intended by you to lower the hard won reputation of our clients and to incite stakeholders in the Nigerian music industry to revolt against our clients and to distort and destroy their legacies.”
Recall that there has been running battle between Copyright Society of Nigeria and Musical Copyright Society Nigeria (MCSN) over collective management organisation of musical returns for artistes.
