25 suspected pirates with goods worth about N76.6 million were seized in 2016 by the Lagos Zonal Office of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC).
This was disclosed by Obi Ezielo, Zonal Manager of NCC. According to him the commission also carried out the anti-piracy raids in 2016 under review.
“The locations where the 25 suspected pirates were arrested include; Alaba, Shomolu, Ajegunle and Ojo. Meanwhile, action were been extended by the NCC to some major markets in the Lagos state”
The NCC Zonal Manager said the seized goods include 350,000 copies of optical discs, some home videos, movies, musical works and literary books, suspected of being pirated.
Ezeilo said that NCC seized N20 million worth of goods seized in Alaba market in March and N1.5million goods in April in the same market.
‘’In June, N5 million goods were seized at Shomolu, in July, N50 million worth of goods were also seized in Shomolu while in August, N50,000 worth of goods were seized in Ajegunle Lamlad,” he said.
Ezeilo said that some of the suspects had been charged to the Federal High Court in Lagos.
Continuing: he said the commission had conducted anti-piracy inspection in professional print, publishing and CDs’ distribution outlets within Lagos metropolis where it made some seizures.
He added that the commission would step up its anti-piracy raids and eradication in 2017.
“Despite the financial constraints confronting the commission, we will not fail to discharge our mandate, because the eradication of piracy attitude is our utmost priority.”
He said that though 2017 was a challenging year for the commission, the commission made it marks.
Ezeilo assured stakeholders of the commission’s zeal and effort to combat piracy in 2017 adding that genuine creators would benefit from the products of their creativity.
