- Wants NCC/AFD/Punuka/KPMG deal probed
- Says NCC leadership interested in grabables
Emmanuel Thomas l Wednesday, March 11, 2020
LAGOS, Nigeria – The Director General of Nigerian Copyright Commission(NCC), Mr. John Asein is in trouble and may as well be on his way out of the NCC based on several allegations leveled against him by the Copyright Society of Nigeria(COSON).
Chairman of COSON, Chief Tony Okoroji made the allegations at a world press conference titled, “The facts, only the facts”, stressing that all his allegations are backed up by documented facts, which he is ready to tender before anybody.
Okoroji stated allegedly that there is evidence that John Asein between the months of January, February, March and April 2016, unlawfully earned income to the tune of N502, 271.00 in each of the months from the Federal Government after retirement as Director in NCC, stressing that the behaviour is not only fraudulent but criminal and that Mr. John Asein should fully be investigated and if found liable, prosecuted.
Besides, he alleged that Mr. John Asein, from January 10, 2017 to January 8, 2019 held the position of Executive Director of Reprographic Rights Organization of Nigeria (REPRONIG), a collective management organization regulated by the NCC which has neither distributed even one kobo to any of its members nor filed a proper audited account and has continued to act on behalf of REPRONIG, write letters on behalf of REPRONIG while he is DG of NCC, set up to regulate REPRONIG.
Read Also RAY EKPU GOOFED ON FANATICAL WITNESSES
According to Okoroji, the NCC DG has continued to manage the funds provided by international donor agencies such as WIPO, IFFRO, NORCODE, KOPINOR, etc, donated to REPRONIG and act as sole signatory to the REPRONIG UBA account No 2004467988 and made payments on behalf of the organization, long after assuming office as Director-General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission.
He alleged that more than one year after John Asein assumed office as DG of the NCC, he is still listed on http://www.repronig.ng the website of REPRONIG, as Executive Director of REPRONIG. “In effect, Mr. John 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”, he noted.
COSON further alleged that John Ohireime Asein is a Public Servant and at thesame time a Director of a private company known as Books & Gavel Ltd which is prohibited under the Public Service Rules. He alleged that there is ample evidence that John Ohireime Asein with IPPIS No 101108 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.
See Also OBASANJO SPEAKS ON DEPOSITION OF SANUSI
Okoroji said there is a significant lack of transparency in the controversial deal between the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), Agency Francaise De Development (AFD), Isioma Idigbe’s Punuka Attorneys and KPMG brokered by Mr. John Asein.
“Unfortunately, nobody at the NCC except Mr. Asein appears to have any full detail of the deal or the money involved. This ought not be so as the NCC is a full-fledged commission of the Federal Government with a Board and not the personal property of Mr. John Asein. The answer to the question, how much is involved in the deal and who received what from whom in this contentious deal, is still blowing in the wind. It is the strongly held opinion of COSON that the NCC/AFD/Punuka/KPMG deal needs to be investigated and the details uncovered”, he said.
Okoroji who called on President Muhammadu Buhari to compell John Asein of the NCC to tender unreserved apology to COSON members, to be published in national dailies for denying them rights to their yearly royalties, also demanded resignation of the NCC DG.
“On these issues, there will be no retreat and no surrender. Let me state unequivocally that we will deploy all the lawful resources available to us until the whole world hears us and the issues raised here are addressed. We owe it to our children” said the former President of PMAN.
Unless, the NCC DG resigns, COSON, wants the Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs. Folashade Yemi Esan, .the Chairman, ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, the Attorney-General of the Federation, & 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.
See Also OBASANJO SPEAKS ON DEPOSITION OF SANUSI
“If these Nigerians fail to take the action which is their duty to take, we have lawyers who are ready to obtain the necessary fiat to forcefully prosecute Mr. Asein”. Okoroji who described himself as a founding member that laboured to draft the enabling law of the NCC said the agency has been inflicted with a very bad and weak leadership.
“Unfortunately, rather than fight piracy of Nigerian creative works and other types of copyright infringement for which the organization was set up, it is the strongly held opinion of COSON that the NCC has become a den of thieves and the crucible of scams. The interest of the NCC leadership appears to be to grab all “grabables” from everywhere which is why they descended ferociously on COSON” .
According to Chief Okoroji, when in January 2019, it was announced that John Ohireime 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 organization will come to an end but that hope, he said has been dashed.
On Forensic Audict of COSON, Okoriji said, he is not affraid of the audit but that the audit as proposed by NCC is against the Company and Allied Act(CAMA), which authorised only AGM of private organisations to chose auditors for the purpose of audit, stressing that COSON remains a private organisations.
He said COSON has written several letters to NCC to bring this facts to the notice of NCC and yet no reply. As he puts it, auditing of incoprated companies is not a copryright matter, but a CAMA issue and that COSON has full complied with auditing by CAMA adding that COSON is an exemplary organisation that has filled yearly audited accounts with with the CAC and full yearly report of COSON activities to the NCC.
He told reporters that the NCC regulation requiring it to appoint an auditor for COSON or any CMO is subsevient to CAMA. “CAMA says only the AGM can appoint audit firms. COSON has nothing to hide as long as it is lawful”, he said and that the auditor in question is a party in a suit with COSON and wonder why it will open its books before an interested party in another suit.
