By Akinwale Kasali
Upcoming Artiste, Okiki Bright, has sued telecommunication giants, 9mobile, Airtel, Globacom and Mobilexcetra for illegal use of his intellectual property.
Bright alleged that the telecommunication outfits used his song, “Gba Gbe Boshe Sele” as caller tune without his authorization, prompting him to take the companies to court.
At the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, where the case is being heard in suit number, FHC/L/CS/1776/17, and presided over by Hon. Justice I.N. Oweibo, the complainant is demanding for the sum of N400 million from the four defendants, and a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from continued use of the work.
Bright claimed that he featured star Artiste, Oritsefemi, in the song to get more publicity and acceptability, for which he paid him.
“We were still working on how to make the song go viral when, in October 2017, people drew my attention to the fact that the song is on caller tune of some telecommunications companies. I downloaded the song for N150 on Airtel to be sure it was my song.
“I involved my lawyer, Barr Alayo Akanbi, who advised that we should verify this fact and, we found out from Globacom website that my music was listed as caller tune and, I downloaded the music using codes provided by these telecommunications company and it was listed there.
We then printed it out as evidence. That was when we decided to officially write them for explanations.”
In a letter dated October 18, 2017, Alayo Akanbi Chambers, solicitors to Okiki Bright, wrote to 9mobile demanding among other things, compensation of five hundred million naira (N500,000,000) for the unlawful use of the song.
However, in a letter dated October 30, 2017, 9mobile said the song had been barred from its caller tune platform pending the resolution of the allegations but urged Okiki Bright and his lawyer to direct all queries to MobileXcetera Limited.
Investigation by the magazine revealed that except Glo, the telecommunication companies allegedly got the song from MobileXcetera Limited which they believed had paid for the song.
In another twist, MobileXcetera is claiming that Oritsefemi sold the song. “But I called Oritsefemi and he denied any such move. He said since the song does not belong to him he could not have sold it. He told me to go and settle with them,” Okiki supplied.
The claim that Oritsefemi owns the song could not possibly be true as all the telecommunications companies listed the song as ‘Gba gbe Boshe Sele by Okiki Bright ft. Oritsefemi.
But according to Okiki Bright, the road to justice has not only been rough and bumpy but it has been filled with power play and delay tactics.
Although Bright has come out with another block buster titled “Chop make I Chop”, he insists he would see his legal struggle through to its conclusion.
In his words, “I had to release ‘Chop make I Chop’ to keep on going, my case in court has really affected me coupled with the manner the telecommunications companies have handled the whole thing.
“I plead with those in positions of authority to come to my aid and help me, the outcome of this case will go a long way in vindicating the judiciary if it is truly the last hope of the common man. As it stands now, justice is on trial”, he declared.
