Sunny Ade Wins N500m Copyright Suit 30 Years Later

Thirty years after he instituted a suit against African Songs
and its subsidiary, Take Your Choice Stores, Juju maestro
King Sunny Ade now has cause to smile as he has been
awarded a whopping N500million as damages, for
infringing on his works with additional cost of N3million
for prosecuting the suit.
According to a statement of claim filed before the court by
a Lagos lawyer Chief Felix Fagbohungbe,SAN, in 1975, a
contract dispute arose between King Suny Ade and the two
companies culminating in a judgement delivered by Justice
Dosunmu of a Lagos High Court.
In the said judgement the court ordered the companies to
return the master tapes of the original musical works
produced under the label of the two companies by Sunny
Ade, but before the master tape could be returned the
chairman chief Executive Office of the two companies Chief
Bolarinwa Abioro died.
Consequently,in a bid to retrieve the master Tapes Sunny
Ade in 1997 dragged the two companies before a federal
high court in Lagos.
Joined as co-defendants are; Lati Alagbada,Record
manufacturing Nigeria Limited, Ibukunola Printers, Alhaja
Awawu Ade Amodu and M.O. Alagbada, who he alleged
have been using the master tapes to produce inferior
qualities of his musical works and sell them to members of
the public thereby depriving him of his means of
livelihood.
He contended that he was the author,composer,and
producer of all the musical works numbering about 22.
He therefore demanded for damages in the sum of N1
Billion jointly and severally and prayed the court to order
the two companies to return to him his master tapes as
well as restraining the defendants from infringing on his
musical works.
In a defence and counter claim filed by the two
companies,they claimed that since Sunny Ade has been
paid royalties by the companies he cannot lay claim to the
tapes again. According to them, the contract he signed with
the two companies does not include returning of the
master tapes to him. Consequently, they urged the court to
award N5million against Suny Ade and in their favour.
In his judgement,Justice James Tsoho while dismissing the
counter claim of the two companies for lack of merit,
ordered the two companies to pay Sunny Ade and his band
the sum of N500milion.
The judge also ordered that the master tapes should be
returned to Sunny Ade since it has been proved beyond
reasonable doubt that he is the owner of the copyright.
The claim against other defendants were struck out on the
ground that not enough evidence were adduced against
them.
Based on the application made by Barrister Yomi Adeniran
from the law firm of Felix Fagbohungbe SAN asking for a
sum of N5million as cost of prosecuting this case as Sunny
Ade have always been coming to court whenever the case
was coming up,Justice Tsoho awarded N3million cost
against the two companies.