The Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) has filed suit No. FHC/L/CS/425/2020 against the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) for the allegedly unlawfully and unconstitutionally suspending the approval and operating licence of COSON.
COSON is seeking eight billion naira for the suspension and another two billion naira for the significant loss of reputation and goodwill it has allegedly suffered due to the actions of the NCC.
In its 63 paragraph Statement of Claim, COSON states that is is a fact that Section 39(2) of the Copyright Act gives the NCC the power to approve collecting societies but nowhere under the law is the NCC given the power to suspend, revoke or in anyway restrict the approval given to a collecting society or embark on an audit of a collecting society or freeze or restrict bank accounts of a collecting society, without an order of a court of law.
According to COSON, NCC has become a monster deploying the wide powers it has unlawfully assumed to decimate the stakeholders it was set up to protect.
COSON added that by NCC’s actions, the commission has been the law maker, the accuser, the judge and the jury in its own case without COSON being offered any opportunity for fair hearing.
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