From Jude Chinedu, Enugu

The leadership of the Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA) has pledged to work with the Nigerian Copyrights Commission (NCC) against the production and circulation of pirated books across South-East and South-South regions.

The National President of the NPA, Chief Uche Anioke made the pledge when he welcomed a delegation of the South East, South South Directorate of the commission who paid a courtesy call on him on Thursday.

Anioke who regretted the activities of some book sellers and schools who aid piracy of educational materials said that his association will do all within its powers in conjunction with the NCC to ensure that the book ecosystem in the country is rid of pirates.

“We will try to reactivate the book sellers association in Enugu. By doing that we will ensure that book sellers are registered with the national body and that we have data of those who are members.

“Schools are following the inappropriate means of acquiring books and that is through pirates. Very unfortunately our schools have become a haven for pirated books.

Related News

“In the quest to buy books at a lower rate, proprietors of schools, principals, headmasters and teachers engage in buying pirated books. They say it is cheaper.

“There is no sacred cow. We will look into the schools and find out the books they are using. To cover the South East and the South South is a herculean task but we are going to work together to ensure that schools are free from pirated books.

Highlighting the challenges of the commission earlier, the leader of the delegation and Director, South-East/South-South Directorate of the NCC, Ngozi Okeke, said she believes that the partnership with NPA will help address most of the bottlenecks in tackling piracy in the zone.

“We have highlighted the challenges we have been having over time because we know that you and your organization will be of help to our office. Having the National President of the publishers association here in Enugu is a great opportunity which we will not take for granted.

“We want to get all the help, advice and support that we can get. We have been having some challenges dealing with book sellers over time but we are hoping that at the end of this gathering we will be able to find how best to handle the situation.

“It’s a new trend that schools now find alternative ways of getting books rather than the right source. We want to meet the Commissioner of Education to see how he can wade into this to see that it is resolved.”