It was a show of shame at the Nigerian Entertainment Conference held over the weekend at the Grand ball room of the Eko Hotel and suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, when two bigwigs in the music industry – Kennis Music Boss, Mr. Kenny Ogungbe and the Chairman of Copyright Society of Nigeria COSON, Chief Tony Okoroji, violently exchange words that almost marred the event of the day.

Chief Tony Okoroji had confronted Kenny Ogungbe in the presence of journalists for daring to say in public that COSON owed him money.

How could he say such a thing? And in public?

Chief Okoroji fumed.

However, Kenny Ogungbe on his part remained resilient, insisting he would stand by his words. They exchanged hot, abusive words impossible to publish including the F word as they were pulled apart by concerned friends who feared the brawl may soon go physical.

Kenny Ogungbe further warned that if anything should happen to him after the brawl, Okoroji would be held responsible.

He said,

After now, if anything happens to me, it is on your head.

The incident happened immediately after the first session of the conference where Mr. Kenny Ogungbe had been amongst a panel of discussants along side Cool DJ Jimmy Jat, Sound Sultan, MI and Weird MC during which pertinent industry issues had been raised.

The panel, before taking questions from participants discussed Looking at the music scene through the eyes of talents, labels, investors, consumers, regulatory bodies. The role of an artiste in the digital age and lastly, surviving in a peculiar industry like Nigeria.

However, Weird MC in her opening had raised questions on the exploitation of the artistes works. She noted that the music industry is no longer about just entertainment but a business that should be accounted for. She claimed that intellectual property of artistes were being exploited with no form of payments made as settlements.

Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) is Nigeria’s sole government approved collective Management Organization for musical works and sound recordings.

Weird MC specifically asked the society if they had any kind of international affiliation with international music copyright regulatory bodies to help check the exploitation of works put out by Nigerian artistes.

According to her

We need to address the International Affiliations involved because this is a business.

Kenny Ogungbe had stepped out after the panel to re-emphasis the statements made by Weird MC to reporters. That was what infuriated Chief Okoroji.

After the heated argument, both of them were too angry to speak further on the issue

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