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| Okposo |
The
General Manager of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), 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 like COSON and he woul return to the fold.
According to Mr Chukwuji, Okposo 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.
Reacting
to the recent internet report that Sammie Okposo has withdrawn his membership
of COSON, Mr Chukwuji said that COSON has not received any resignation letter
from Okposo. 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.
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