—— Says partnership has helped in enforcement actions, public awareness campaigns, and the protection of intellectual property rights.
The Deputy President (East) Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA), Sir. Jesse Odu made this known while speaking on the topic “ Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA) at 60: Milestones, Challenges and Prospects,” on the programme, Beyond the Headlines on Freedom Square TV, anchored by Uchenna Cyril Anioke.
Odu strongly condemned the rising menace of book piracy in the country, describing it as a major threat to the growth and sustainability of the publishing industry.
Sir. Odu stated that the Association frowns at all forms of piracy, noting that the illegal reproduction and distribution of books deprive authors, publishers, and other stakeholders of their rightful earnings.
According to him, “another milestone which NPA has attained is having a very good collaboration with the Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC), a body that has been instituted to provide the framework, to checkmate or to regulate and guide industries. Since the inception of NCC, the NPA has always been very closely working with the NCC. The NPA has had a very good working relationship with the NCC. At the moment, the current Director General of NCC, Dr. John Asein has been very helpful in this mandate. There have been so many raids carried out by the commission in collaboration with the NPA, with a view to stamping out or to a very great extent reducing piracy in the eco book system.
Continuing, now in several flash points in Nigeria. Raids were carried out in Aba, Ariaria to be precise is a flash point, Ajegunle in Lagos is another flashpoint, Ibadan, Kano and in Onitsha. In the past, raids were carried out in all these flash points. After so many efforts to make people know the dangers of piracy failed. That was when we swung into action with the NCC to now bring them to their knees. Sometime in the year 2019, a very serious raid was carried out in Aba where international pirates take publishers books to China and India to print and bring them into the country and start distributing. That syndicate was busted through a combined efforts of NPA, NCC, DSS, Police and the Military and that singular raid in Aba dealt a very debilitating blow on the pirates that some of them were not able to withstand the effect on them.”
He stated that the NPA maintains a cordial and productive relationship with the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), which he said has been instrumental in tackling copyright infringements across the country.
Odu therefore urged government agencies, educational institutions, booksellers, and the general public to support efforts aimed at curbing piracy by patronizing original publications and reporting suspected cases of copyright violation.