NCC Arrests 14 Pirates in South East

Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) said it arrested 14 suspected pirates in the South East zone between January and August 2013.

Mrs Ngozi Okeke, NCC manager, South East zone,  told the News Agency of Nigeria in Enugu on Monday that the suspects were caught selling pirated books and broadcast materials, including cable signals.

Okeke said that nine persons were arrested in Enugu State, while five others were caught in Aba, Abia, adding that they had been charged to court.

The manager said the commission was collaborating with different groups, including the Performing Musician Association of Nigeria (PMAN) and book sellers union in carrying out some raids.

She attributed its major challenge in fighting piracy to high technological development which had made it difficult to track them.

“If you want to track them through their usual way, they would migrate to another way with different strategies through some technologies like internet and telecommunication,’’ she said.

Okeke said the commission had carried out some sensitisation programmes, including radio jingles and workshops to enlighten the public on dangers of piracy.

“We have held series of enforcement drive, we visited the markets, the book sellers, the MP3 people who download other people’s songs and put it in mobile phones or CDs to sell,” she said.

He explained that last year, the commission in collaboration with PMAN, arrested 23 suspected broadcast pirates in the zone, adding that they were prosecuted.