A Lagos Federal High Court, presided by Justice Musa Kurya, yesterday sentenced two booksellers to three months imprisonment each for book pirate.
The convicted booksellers, Jonas Ozo and Awuru Chukwumah Abel, were arraigned before the court on separate offences which they pleaded guilty to by the officials of Nigeria Copyright Commission, NCC.
While Awuru was arraigned and found guilty on two count charges of pirating two copies of the former Federal Capital Territory minister, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Jonas was arraigned and found guilty of one count charge of pirating 582 copies of ‘Business of the 21st Century’, authored by Robert T Kiyosaki.
The NCC’s prosecutors, Mrs. Lydia Alphaeus and Chioma Ekechukwu, told the court that the convicts were arrested in March at Boundary-Ajegunle and Adekunle-Yaba areas of Lagos, with the copies of pirated books, which they offered for sale, without the consent of the authors.
The offences according to the prosecutors, contravened and punishable under section 20(2)(c) of the copyright act cap C 28, laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004.
The prosecution had called one witness each, while the convicts witnessed for themselves.
Sentencing the convicts, Justice Kurya said the prosecution has succeeded in proving charges against the accused persons.
Kurya said due to the plea for leniency by accused and being a first time offenders, they are sentence into three months imprisonment.
After sentencing the convicts, Justice Kurya, however, tasked the officials of Nigeria Copyright Commission to go after the publishers of pirated books instead of arresting and prosecuting the booksellers.