NCC convicts 57 for piracy

Some of the items seized from suspects. File copy

Tony Okafor, Awka

The Nigerian Copyrights Commission on Monday said it had convicted 57 persons across the country this year for piracy.

It added that the commission was prosecuting 200 piracy cases in various federal high courts in the country.

The Director of Enforcement of the organisation, Mr. Augustine Amodu, disclosed this to journalists in Onitsha on Monday during a raid of some illegally connected DSTV cables.

He said most of the convicts were involved in illegal connection and redistribution of MultiChoice DSTV services.

He described piracy as one cankerworm that had eaten deep into the economic fabrics of the country.

“It’s a crime against the DSTV; it’s a crime against the legitimate subscribers; It’s a crime against the economy; It’s a crime against humanity. For how long are we going to continue with this illegality and still expect prosperity?” Amodu stated.

He said the commission was empowered by Section 38 of the Copyrights Commission law to arrest and prosecute defaulters.

Amodu said the commission had found that some individuals would buy a single unit of DSTV decoder and would redistribute services to over 300 persons and collect N2,000 per subscriber.

“This is corruption; this is criminal; this is fraud. We can’t allow it. Government is losing because these fraudsters don’t pay tax. This contributes to unemployment.

“We will not sit back and watch the quality of our contents being reduced to this derogatory level whereby some individuals will use our hard earned content right ownership to further cable piracy, Amodu stated.