Oops! Sammie Okposo asks COSON to stop collecting royalties on his behalf

Oops! Sammie Okposo asks COSON to stop collecting royalties on his behalf

Gospel singer Sammie Okposo has renounced his membership of Copyright Society of Nigeria, (COSON) over what he described as “the lack of transparency and accountability on the part of the Collecting Management Organisation, CMO.”

The multiple award winning singer asked the Tony Okoroji-led COSON to stop collecting royalties and acting on his behalf with immediate effect.

“I, Sammie Okposo, a proud Nigerian artiste wish to notify the general public and all stakeholders alike that I have stopped being a member of COSON,” he stated.

He added that,  “The registration of COSON is commendable and may have set the industry on the path to growth and consolidation, but accountability and transparency is very important. My facts reveal that there is nothing in COSON’s constitution that limits the number of terms the Chairman of the Board could serve and this is extremely dangerous,” Okposo said.

 “I read Onyeka Onwenu’s interview and she cited it as one of the reasons she left the board of COSON. All efforts must be made to ensure COSON does not end up the property of one man. COSON is now delving into awards and competitive activities that are not related to its core responsibilities and this is a distraction”. 

“The organisation needs to imbibe the art of transparency in the disbursement of funds. How do you disburse royalty payments without showing the artistes the logs? It’s unacceptable. This issue must also be looked into with a view to ensuring that monies collected actually go to deserving artistes,” he added.