Mr Afam Ezekude, the Director-General, Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), on Thursday said that the commission had confiscated pirated products worth N8.1 billion in the last six years.
Ezekude made this known at a luncheon organised by NCC for newsmen on the activities of the commission on Thursday in Abuja.
“In keeping with our zero tolerance policy towards piracy and other copyright infringement, since January 2011 to date, the commission has seized pirated products valued at over N8.1 billion naira.
“This represents the value of money that would have been lost to the nefarious activities of pirates to the detriment of our hard-working copyright owners,” Ezekude said.
The director-general stated that the products, which included software, books, CDs, DVDs and other pirated materials, were seized during the commission’s anti-piracy raids across the country.
According to him, since 2011 to date, the commission has carried out 270 anti-piracy operations at various locations in the country, resulting in the seizure of 7,942,683 units of pirated products.
Ezekude noted that 608 suspects were apprehended and the commission had also secured the conviction of 54 copyrights pirates at different Federal High Courts in the country.
“Apart from the convictions, the commission has in the period mentioned intercepted 25 containers of pirated Nigerian and foreign works.
“We also carried out public destruction of pirated copyright works estimated at N10 billion.
“The products were confiscated in the course of our enforcement campaign across the nation, especially in Lagos, Kaduna and Enugu states,” he explained.
The D-G added that the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), an arm of the UN recently decided to locate its Africa Regional Office in Nigeria.
“This is a validation of the commission’s effort in the fight against global piracy.”
He explained that the choice of Nigeria emanated from an intense bid by many major African countries, with Algeria being the only other country granted the privilege.
According to him, the location of WIPO office in Nigeria has further positioned the country and Africa at large to make better use of specific fit-for-purpose WIPO services in the fight against piracy.
He added that the office would also help to raise the commission and the creative industry profile in terms of the Federal Government’s prioritisation to better manage the creative sector and fight piracy.
Ezekude commended relevant stakeholders, especially the media for their roles in the fight against piracy in Nigeria.
He stated that the luncheon was mainly for the commission to appreciate the media for its contributions and to solicit better cooperation in reporting Copyright and anti-piracy matters.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that top executives from different media organisations in the Federal Capital Territory were present at the event. (NAN)