Commission Destroys N1.4b Pirated Items In Kaduna

Officials of the Nigerian Copyrights Commission (NCC) yesterday, destroyed N1.4 b worth of seized imported and locally pirated items in Kaduna.

The pirated items set on fire by the Commission last Friday was part of the N7.9 pirated materials seized between 2011 and 2015.

The Director General (DG) of NCC, Mr. Afam Ezekude, who spoke with stakeholders prior to the destruction of the seized items at Afaka, a surbub in Kaduna, warned against the dangers of piracy, saying that it is a crime against the nation and the intellectual properties owners, which the Commission will continue to fight until it is stamped out in the country.

“As a regulatory body, the current policy thrust of the Commission is to build upon a foundation of collective action through harmonised and cooperative input of the various segments of the creative industry,” he said,

According to Ezekude, “between January 2011 and June 2015, the Commission had carried out 210 anti-piracy raids, culminating in the seizure and removal of 7,589,948 units of pirated copyright materials with estimated monetary value of 7.9b naira. This represents income that would have been lost to operations of pirates”.