Heavyweights In The Entertainment Industry Fight In Public: Kenny Ogungbe and Tony Okoroji slug it out

The Nigerian Entertainment Conference held over the weekend at the Grand ball room of the Eko Hotel and suites, Victoria Island, Lagos was nearly marred by violent exchange of words between Kennis Music Boss Mr. Kenny Ogungbe and Chairman of Copyright Society of Nigeria COSON, Chief Tony Okoroji.

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

“How could he say such a thing? And in public?” Chief Okorogie fumed.

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 went on to say “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 our works”. She noted that the music industry is no longer about just entertainment but a business that should be accounted for. She claimed that music properties 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 affiliations 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 cause this is a business.
Kenny Ogungbe had stepped out after the panel to re-emphasis these statements made by Weird MC to reporters before making the comments that infuriated Chief Okoroji.

After the heated argument, both were too angry to speak further on the testy issue.