Why musicians are very angry with Access Bank

The Access Bank branch at 60 Opebi Rd Ikeja may not have bargained for the scene at the bank this Monday, May 30, 2022 as the bank was stormed by musicians of all colours demanding their money said to have been unlawfully withheld by the bank for almost four years.

The musicians led by Chief Tony Okoroji, the irrepressible former President of PMAN and Chairman, Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), the nation’s biggest copyright collective management organization with members across Nigeria, stormed the bank as early as 9.00 am with very colourful placards, some reading, “ACCESS BANK… OLE BANK … RETURN OUR MONEY NOW!”; “ACCESS BANK… RESPECT COURT ORDERS … RETURN MUSICIANS’ MONEY TODAY!”; ”ACCESS BANK, 419 BANK, RELEASE MUSICIANS’ MONEY NOW!!!”; “IS ACCESS BANK BROKE? WHY ARE THEY SEIZING CUSTOMERS MONEY? PAY US OUR MONEY TODAY!”; “EAST, WEST, NORTH & SOUTH, MUSICIANS WILL TAKE ON
ACCESS BANK. RELEASE MUSICIANS’ MONEY TODAY!!! etc.

It will be recalled that Justice Yellin S. Bogoro of the Federal High Court, Lagos, in a celebrated judgment, recently ordered Access Bank Plc to immediately unfreeze the bank accounts of COSON at the bank and to pay COSON 70 million naira in damages for unlawful freezing of accounts. Despite the order of Justice Bogoro and an earlier decision in 2019 by Justice M.S. Hassan, Access Bank has continued to withhold COSON’s funds which has resulted in the storming of the bank. Written instructions given to the bank by COSON to pay earned specific royalties to several musicians have also been disobeyed by the bank.

Speaking on the development, COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji, said “That this is happening in a supposed democracy, is crazy! We have been patient with Access Bank, very patient. They seem to have a corporate culture of never keeping to their word. You have meetings with them, reach agreements, by the time you leave, the agreements have changed. For almost four years, for no justifiable reason, they have traded with the money belonging to their customer at no cost and inflicted untold hardship on our members, their loyal customers. Two Federal High Court Judges have delivered clear judgments requiring Access Bank to release the funds of their customer who has not borrowed any money from them and is not owing them one naira and they have chosen to disobey the orders of court.“Rather than pay us our money, they use our money to hire expensive lawyers who come to court, file incoherent motions and make juvenile arguments to hold on tenaciously to money belonging to an Access Bank customer. They acquire luxury estates in Banana Island and their customers whose funds they have brazenly ceased, die in penury. This is what banking seems to have turned into in Nigeria and many Nigerians are going through this hell.

“Can you imagine that a member of the Access Bank staff told me that they can use court processes to hold us down for 25 years and that by the time they are done, our money will no longer have any value and most of the people who are involved would have died? Somebody should tell Access Bank that we are not playing their game anymore! We are not going to wait for 25 years. We will not wait for 25 months or 25 weeks or 25 days. This appears to be what they do to many of their innocent customers. They kill them and get away with it. It has now become a culture. People should tell them that they have now taken on the wrong guys. They will not get away with it with the musicians of Nigeria. We want our money now.“For close to four years, they played the music and we danced. Now, we will play the music and they will dance. They want to turn the Court of justice to the Court of injustice and make Nigerian people a laughing-stock. It will not work with us. If they want peace, we will give them peace but if they want war, they will experience war without end. We will make the movie and they will watch. We will keep them awake all day and all night and even if they ever close their eyes, they will keep seeing us in their dreams. Enough of all this nonsense going on in Nigeria!”