Entertainment
Defamation: Minister Threatens Legal Action Against PMAN
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has threatened legal action against the Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria (PMAN) of accusing him of plagiarism and intellectual property theft.
PMAN had alleged that Alhaji Lai Mohammed’s creative summit on financing the creative industry which he recently hosted is part of a proposal by PMAN submitted to the minister on the 5th of August, 2016, but which Alhaji Mohammed went ahead to implement without consulting with PMAN.
Counsel to PMAN, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, had in a statement said that, “though the conference was deceptively tagged “Creative Industry Financing Conference”, it is our client’s firm’s belief that the conference was held in full implementation of our client’s original brain child and ideas as clearly highlighted in their respective presentation of 5th August, 2016 and action plan of 18th August, 2016 all in the possession of the Ministry of Information and Culture.
“Our client viewed this action as a great infringement of their intellectual property rights and dubious conversion of their brain child ideas and concept, originating from painstaking professional study, research and investigation that gulped them over 500,000”.
Best the minister dismissed the allegation as laughable and threatened to sue PMAN for defamation of character, stressing that it was his right to host a conference of the creative industry. “As a minister for information and culture I can’t stop people coming to me with proposals, so when a supposedly reputable organization as PMAN comes and says he wants to see the minister and he says we want to organize conference on creative industry, does that stop me as a minister from organizing my own creative industry, especially when you did not come to me with a blue print to show me how the conference will be?”
Even is PMAN proposal was visible, there was no way at that point in time that I could have asked them to go ahead to do it, but where is the law that says that the minister must accept any or every proposal from a group, so your right to organize a conference is exclusive to one person or a person comes to you and say because he has given you a proposal that he wants to organize a creative conference, so you as a minister, you are stopped or you can’t do your work”?, but I can assure you, I have instructed my lawyers to sue them for defamation”, he said.
R&B star, Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Tems, has recounted the early-career challenges she faced, revealing that she was once booed out of the stage while performing at a school event.
Speaking in an interview with Newsmen, the Crazy Tings crooner shared that she wasn’t only booed but was also harassed with plastic bottles.
“I remember one time I was going to perform at my school as an up-and-coming singer and I thought I was going to receiving a standing ovation.
“But I got booed. They even threw plastic bottles at me,” she recalled.
Tems explained that despite the embarrassing incident and other such rejections, she remained determined to pursue a career in music.
The Tide Entertainment reports that Tems admitted that some of the initial rejections she faced could be due to her conviction to stick to her originality instead of doing covers or familiar sounds like most of her peers.
The Grammy-winning singer said looking back now, she is glad that she didn’t compromise her style despite the initial pressures.
A close associate of late singer Mohbad, Primeboy, has appealed for the artiste’s burial nearly three years after his death.
According to him, Mohbad’s body remains in the mortuary since September 12, 2023, pending burial arrangements.
The Tide Entertainment reports that in a statement Primeboy urged the family, public, and government to permit the burial, stating, “It’s been almost three years since Mohbad left us. His body is still in the mortuary. I’m begging the family, I’m begging the public, I’m begging the government, please let’s bury our brother. He deserves a befitting burial.”
It would be recalled that Mohbad’s death sparked public outrage, protests, and investigations. Ongoing autopsy examinations, police inquiries, and legal proceedings have delayed burial arrangements amid family disagreements and public scrutiny.
Nancy Briggs
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