NCC have recovered a large amount of pirated materials all over the states in Nigeria this year

The Nigerian Copyrights Commission (NCC) has confiscated a staggering amount of pirated materials with the street value running into billions of Naira so far this year.

NCC director general, Bar. Afam Ezekude made this known during a parley with newsmen over the weekend. According to him, the seized goods have been recovered from a number of states across the country.

The states include Kwara, Nassarawa, the capital Abuja and Lagos where the highest recorded value reached N1.5 billion in one operation at Apapa Wharf Terminal in April.

A crackdown on illegal production and distribution of copyright work led to the arrest of eight people by the NCC in major areas around Kaduna Town on 22nd July while less than two weeks later after thorough surveillance headed by Amodu, over 4,700 copies of musical CDs, DVDs and VCDs estimated at N2,300,000 were confiscated in Enugu state on August 5.

Stakeholders and foreign and indigenous Book Publishers have since praised the efforts of the NCC’s fight against piracy at an international publishers meeting held in Lagos on 13 May this year.
Herna Van Wyk, the host and Regional Manager Africa for Elsevier -a company based in Amsterdam, personally thanked the commission, officers of the Nigerian Customs Services (NCS) and members of the Nigerian publishers Association (NPA) for their crucial roles in tackling piracy.

Mr. Amodu has further assured that investigation has since commenced with a view to ensure the prosecution of all the arrested suspects.