NCC RAIDS AND THE FIGHT AGAINST PIRACY IN NIGERIA

Nigerian Copyright Commission

The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) reported a successful raid of Oduakpu, Fegge and Inland town areas of Onitsha and the arrest of a suspect on November 4th, 2016. The raid was carried out by a team of copyright inspectors, armed Policemen and officials of Multi-Choice Nigeria. 

The report divulged that the suspects were involved in the transmission of illegal signals through broadcast enhancing devices, all of which were seized by the commission. These devices were valued at 12.3 Million Naira, and include Decoders, an Alpha box, DVD, Wiztech, and 3D tech. NCC's Director of Enforcement, disclosed that prior to the raid, strategic surveillance and planning had been carried out upon a complaint by the Manager of Multichoice Nigeria. More investigations and surveillance are currently being carried out. Another raid in Solmolu area of Lagos State was also reported in July this year which resulted in the confiscation of suspected pirated literary works valued at N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira), as well as the arrest of six suspects.

The NCC continues to be vocal about its war against piracy in Nigeria. Earlier in the year, the NCC published a report for the first quarter which divulged that it successfully arrested 35 suspects and seized 48, 207 units of suspected pirated materials valued at N39, 020, 300 (Thirty-nine Million, Twenty Thousand, Three Hundred Naira)  in the first quarter of 2016 alone. It also carried out surveillance, investigations and anti-piracy operations in 12 Nigerian states within this period. Furthermore, the Commission publicly destroyed over 17 million units of various copyright infringing products valued at N2.4 Billion Naira. According to the Director-General of the Commission, Mr. Afam Ezekude, "the impounded items represent income that would have been diverted from legitimate rights owners and taxable income and revenue that would have been lost to the Federal Government."

Month	Number of anti-piracy Surveillances	Number of Anti-Piracy Operations	Quantity of Seizures	Market Value of Seizure	Number of Arrests	State of Operation
January	Several	3	29, 445	N3, 120,300:00	3	Kwara  and Oyo States
February	,,	1	221	N1,000,000: 00	6	Adamawa
March	,,	9	18,541	N34,900,000:00	26	Enugu, Edo, Alaba- Lagos, Oyo, Sokoto, Kebbi, Bayelsa, Kaduna and Abia
Total	22	13	48,207	N39,020,300	35	12

Table: Representation of the Enforcement/anti-piracy operations carried out by NCC within the first quarter of the year 2016 (January-March). Source: NCC

Piracy is a big problem in Nigeria, and it applies to books, music, films and software. This, in addition to infringement of other intellectual property rights are prevalent in Lagos- Alaba International Market, Computer Village; Abia- Ariaira Market Aba; Onitsha- Ochanja, electronic and upper Iweka markets. Other markets in the nation's capital, Abuja, as well as Bayelsa, Cross River, Enugu, Kano, Ebonyi, Plateau etc. are also involved. 

The dedication of the NCC is commendable as it is only with an energetic curbing approach on the issue of Piracy, that the problem can be greatly reduced. Successful prosecution of these cases will therefore do more to discourage the act of Piracy and ensure more security for intellectual property rights. It is also noteworthy that the energy and resources employed by most pirates would be quite valuable to the nation if channeled to legitimate trade and creative enterprises and this should be encouraged when items are seized and offenders prosecuted.