The General Manager of Copyright Society of Nigeria, Mr
Chinedu Chukwuji has said that with time Gospel Singer, Sammie Okposo will
realize that there are few Nigerian institutions that are run with a level of
transparency, accountability and professionalism available at COSON and he will
return to the fold. According to Mr Chukwuji, Sammie has not availed himself
the opportunity of visiting the COSON office and is clearly unfamiliar with the
quality of personnel, the technology and processes put to work at COSON.
In a statement made available to Julia Blaise Blog (JBB), Mr Chukwuji said that COSON has not
received any resignation letter from Okposo, who was said to have resigned his
membership with the society. According to Mr. Chukwuji, ‘COSON has thousands of
members and hundreds of thousands of affiliates. We do not join issues with our
members on the pages of newspapers and certainly not with Sammie Okposo, whom I
consider a personal friend. Since Sammie has made his statement public, we have
a duty to clear any misconceptions about COSON before they become accepted as
facts’
Mr Chukwuji said that he finds it curious that Sammie had to
issue a public statement about withdrawing his membership of COSON at a time
when members of COSON are engaged in a historic struggle to liberate the Nigerian
creative industry from servitude. According to him, ‘Mr Okposo has unlimited
access to me and I believe he is a very close friend of the Chairman. I have
asked our Chairman if Sammie ever complained to him and his answer was
negative. Sammie never asked me for any information that was not provided to
him. I cannot remember seeing Sammie at any COSON meeting and he has not been
to the COSON office to ask any question’
On the statement made by Ms Onyeka Onwenu which Mr Okposo said was responsible for his action,
Mr Chukwuji said, ‘Sammie should know that the statement made by Ms Onwenu
after she was not re-elected during the
COSON elections of May 2012 is the subject of a defamation action in court. I
believe that as a democrat, Sammie should have been patient to find out whether
the court will determine that the statement is justified or not before relying
on it’
With respect to royalty payments, Chukwuji said that the
process of royalty payments at COSON is 100% transparent.According to him,
‘COSON is probably the only CMO in the world where the entire members’ debate
and vote to approve every royalty distribution scheme. Elsewhere, management
devises the royalty scheme and implements it. Every member of COSON who has
issues with his/her royalty statement has the right to audit the process and
this right has been exercised several times’
On the issue of tenure of officers, Mr Chukwuji said that
COSON which is less than four years old, strictly follows the rules as laid out
in its Articles of Association which limits the tenure of any Director to three
years except re –elected. According to him, the Chairman is first, a Director;
and is bound by the same rules.
7 Comments
Onyeka n okoroji war wil neva end
ReplyDeleteSammie okposo now in midle of d fight
ReplyDeleteAre you sure sammie okposo said this for crying out loud
ReplyDeleteRoyalty payment trnasparent? Buh noone kws hw much coson mks in d 1st place.
ReplyDeleteWhy must sammie okposo resign now that iban/bon re fighting singers...ehh?
ReplyDeleteSammie okposo is a coward simple
ReplyDeleteSee na 2face,banky w & odas are cming out to sort things out,sammie okposo is resigning
ReplyDelete