Absence of judge stalls trial of MTN CEO

The trial of Mr Karl Toriola, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd; and others was, on Thursday, stalled due to the absence of the trial judge.

Although the matter was fixed for the arraignment of Toriola and other, Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court, Abuja was not in court.

The matter was, however, adjourned until Sept. 26 for the defendants’ to take their plea.

Other defendants in the charge are MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd; MTN Senior Executive Officer, Nkeakam Abhulimen; Fun Mobile Ltd, a telecommunications service provider; and Yahaya Maibe, its CEO as 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th defendants respectively.

Toriola is named as 2nd defendant in the charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/111/2024.

The prosecution; the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) had, on May 14, accused Toriola of evading service of court documents in the alleged copyright infringement charge.

Justice Ekwo had adjourned the matter until today to allow the prosecution effect service of the court papers on the MTN CEO.

But the case, which was listed as number one on the cause list, could not proceed.

On June 22,  a musician, Maleke Moye, who is the nominal.complainant in the suit, had raised alarm over alleged plan by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, to take over the ongoing trial of the telecommunications company and its CEO.

The musician said that the minister’s directive for the prosecuting agency, NCC, to hands off the trial and forward the case file to his (AGF) office portends impending dangerous precedence.

In the three count-count charge dated March 19 and filed March 20 by Emeka Ogbonna on NCC’s behalf, the prosecution alleged that the defendants, between 2010 and 2017, “offered for sale, sold and traded for business, infringed musical works of Maleke Moye, an artiste, without his consent and authorisation.”

The commission alleged that the defendants used Maleke’s musical works and sound recordings with subsisting copyright, known as “caller ring back tunes” without the authorisation of the artiste.

The musical works and sound recordings of the musician allegedly infringed upon include “911, Minimini-Wana Wana, Stop Racism, Ewole, 911 instrumental, Radio, Low Waist, and No Bother.”

The defendants were also alleged to have illegally distributed the musical works to their subscribers, without authorisation, thereby infringing on the rights of the artiste.

In the third count, the defendants were alleged of having in their possession, the musical works and sound recordings of the artiste, other than for their personal or domestic use.

The copyright commission said the alleged offence is punishable under Section 20 (2) (a) (b) and (c) of the Copyright Act, Cap. C28, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.