- IG orders that case be moved to Abuja
This may be the beginning of a real legal battle against intellectual property theft, as a suspected pirate, Eze Obasi, on Tuesday, was apprehended in Alaba market, Lagos, following tip off.
This happened two days after the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, during a meeting with stakeholders in the film industry declared war against pirates, “this is totally unacceptable!” he said. “This Administration is determined to fight this scourge, and the good news is that we have the backing of Mr. President.
Obasi may just be the first of similar cases to be attacked with all seriousness, as the Inspector General of Police (IG), Solomon Arase has ordered the transfer of Obasi to Abuja.
Arase was acting on the directive of the Minister of Information and Culture, who was contacted by a prominent member of the film industry who craved anonymity.
Earlier, filmmakers were agitated over the relocation of Obasi, thinking it was another ploy to release the suspect, who has the backing of king pins in the market.
But the Special Assistant to the Minister of Information and Culture, Williams Adeleye confirmed to The Nation that his boss was indeed aware of the case and had contacted the IG about it.
Speaking to The Nation at the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC)’s office where he was taken to on Thursday for questioning, Obasi admitted to the crime, saying; “They caught me with pirated movies.”
Although the NCC officials would not allow our reporter take the picture of the suspect, they let him talk to us at length. He is a man in his early thirties.
He confessed that he was on his way to make supply, having prepared the waybill.
One of the major films being processed by obasi as at the time he was caught was Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen’s movie, Invasion 1897. He claimed he is new in the business.
“It was after Invasion 1897 came out. That was when customers were demanding for it, my customer told me to send him some copies of the film.”
But contrary to Obasi’s claim, prominent movie marketer, Gabriel Okoye, aka Gabosky, said Obasi had indeed been arrested for similar case in the past.
You must have been doing the business before for you to know that customers are demanding for Invasion 87, The Nation asked. “Customers do buy different market so they know want, I’ve not been doing it for a long time,” he insisted, but added he was merely dealing in foregn films before now.
“It was where I went to but that I saw this one (Invasion 1897) na im I cun buy am to go do waybill,” he said in pigeon.
How do you do the waybill you share to other people for sale? He replied: “Na only one guy call me I cun go carry am so as I carry am dey go do waybill na em police catch me for road.”
He said further, his voice unstable: “I don’t know, I am just begging the owners of the movies to temper justice with mercy and I promise that I won’t do it again. I know that it is not good and it’s not that I really want to be doing this business but it is because of my background and assuming I have enough capital I would gone abroad to start a business or maybe be an importer. I am even planning to further my education because I am just an O’level holder.
“It’s not that am really doing it to wicked the owners of the movies, am just trying to raise money to further my education. Please I am begging for forgiveness I promise I won’t do it again.”
Who are the people that supply him these movies? “These people are inside Alaba international market,” he said. “Even though the Alaba government is against it they are doing it secretly, Alaba market no allow this kind thing.”How come they are doing this and the Alaba authorities don’t know? “Maybe they are settling some people. “That means there are corrupt officials among the Alaba government? “I don’t know my brother just help me beg them,” were his words.
According to Gabosky, CEO of G-Media who was at the NCC office early Thursday, “Invasion 1897 belongs to Lancelot Imasuen and it was released by G-Media on the 15Th of February.”
He narrated the incidents that led to the arrest of Obasi.
“Majorly, the film is about Benin Kingdom and the position of the then Oba in1897 and Lancelot went to Benin and solicited with the people and the Oba not to allow the scourge of piracy that is bedeviling the industry to extend there with that film Invasion and they promised. So when this pirate, Eze Obasi way-billed it to somebody in Benin, the person returned it to him saying that he will not because he doesn’t want the curse they will place on whoever pirates the movie in Benin to extend to him.
“This was how the police at Ojo were contacted and they sprang into action. I asked them what their plan was for the pirate, they said they will take him to court because they can’t hold him for more than 48hours. I know that once they take him to magistrate court they will discharge him and they will go without any more follow up. I had to call the NCC since this copyright issue is on exclusive legislative list which allows the Copyright Commission to be the only legal body to prosecute on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
‘This morning the copyright commission followed up by sending an officer to Ojo Cantonment, I also sent my own lawyer to supervise and they brought the guy, Eze Obasi.
“When they brought him here, I now saw that it was the same guy that we arrested when he pirated October 1 by Kunle Afolayan. When we arrested him then, the Alaba people fought that we couldn’t do anything, it became a problem to remove him from Alaba market so we had to use Alaba market chairman to get him to write an undertaken that he will not do this thing again which he did and we seized the copies of the works from him.
“So when I saw that he is the same person again I asked him; were you not the one who signed this undertaken? He said yes, he say na devil. I had to come here to oblige them my statement, called Lancelot to oblige them his statement. Let’s see what will happen again because we are handicapped by the kind of law we are using to prosecute these criminals.”
Gabosky lamented that, “Most of the producers are down, some are dying of hunger because these boys are moving from one clan which is Abakaliki and they are just pirating people’s work, getting richer while the government is not doing anything.”
He expressed regrets that although the Copyright Commission will charge him to court and then start prosecuting him, “but sometimes they will be on that prosecution while the suspect goes back and continues the business because the fine they give them is nonsense.”
The NCC official, Mr Joe however declined comments on the matter.
