The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) on Tuesday carried out a raid on sellers of pirated literature in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and arrested two suspects.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that enforcement officers of the commission, accompanied by men of the Nigeria Police Force, carried out the operations at some sales points and outlets in FCT.
The NCC’s Director of Enforcement, Mr Obi Ezeilo, said that large copies of pirated foreign and local literature were confiscated during the operations.
The director, who was represented by the Assistant Chief Copyright Officer, Mr Chukwuemeka Ngene, said pirated books seized included the Legendary ‘Things Fall Apart’ by Chinua Achebe.
According to him, others are copies of Ola Rotimi’s masterpiece ‘The Gods Are Not To Blame’, ‘The Drummer Boy’ by Cyprian Ekwensi, as well as pirated works of some contemporary authors.
He said the raid was part of the nationwide intensified enforcement operations against pirated works launched by the organisation to protect the nation’s creative industry.
He noted that the operation was made possible because of effective intelligence gathering mechanism of the commission.
“The commission under its current director-general has scaled up its enforcement activities to ensure that piracy becomes unattractive for those who saw it as a means of making quick money.
“As part of the NCC’s zero-tolerance stance against piracy in all its forms, we are working closely with the Nigeria Police.
“The commission is poised to ensure total sanity of the creative industry to ensure that right owners enjoy the fruits of their hard labours,” he said.
He said that those arrested would be made to face the wrath of the law in line with the enabling Acts of the board.
He, however, urged vendors of books, films and music materials to ensure that they deal directly with the original producers and right owners.
NAN reports that the NCC is a Federal Government agency responsible for all copyright matters in Nigeria including the administration, regulation, enforcement and prosecution under the Copyright Act.
