Justice Oguntoyinbo
Court refuses to unblock Shell’s bank accounts
Getty Images Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo of the Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday declined to vacate an interim injunction directing 20 banks to block Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) and its subsidiaries’ bank accounts. The court also insisted that two of the banks’ secretaries and chief financial officers accused of disobeying the order made on January 25, 2021 must appear before it on March 29, 2021. The affected banks and their officials are: Citi Bank Ltd, its Company Secretary Sola Fagbure and Chief Financial Officer, Sharaf Mohammed; United Bank For Africa (UBA) Plc, its Company Secretary Bill Andrew Odum and Chief Financial Officer, Ebenezer Kolawole. The judge threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against them if they failed to appear before her on the ...
Court stops COSON from general distribution practice
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has declared that the General Distribution which is practised by the Copyright Society of Nigeria, COSON, is illegal. The practise involves the annual distribution of the same amount of music royalties, usually about N30,000 each, to thousands of the organization’s members. This practice was challenged in court by the Music Publishers’ Association of Nigeria, MPAN, in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1418/2019; Green Light Music Publishing Ltd, Chocolate City Music Ltd, Premier Music Publishing Company Ltd v. Copyright Society of Nigeria Ltd/Gte. The judgement which was delivered on November 25, 2020, by Justice Oguntoyinbo also ordered COSON to stop further distribution of royalties “in a manner known as ‘General Distribution’ or how so ever called which does not re...
