Popular afro-pop music singer, Ajibola Olumuyiwa Danladi, aka Danny Young, has filed a N200 million lawsuit against Tiwa Savage and Mavins Records for alleged copyright infringement.
The singer decided to take legal action against Tiwa and her record label, Mavin for allegedly unlawfully using lyrics of his 2009 hit single, ‘Oju Ti Won’, in her latest song titled ‘One’.
The lawsuit (Suit No: FHC/L/CS/230/2019) which was filed at the Federal High Court, Lagos, on February 13, 2019, is being brought to public notice for the first time.
Recall that Danny Young had called out Tiwa on social media, accusing her of sampling his song without seeking due permission from him, causing Youtube to take down the video of the song, but he was attacked by Tiwa’s fans who accused him of seeking cheap public attention.
However, after due consultations, YouTube restored the video on Sunday, describing Danny Young’s petition as ‘unfounded’.
While sharing the news of the lawsuit, the singer said he was forced to take legal action against his Tiwa because she ignored him when he reached out to her.
“Tiwa, I know people love you, even me. But I still have to sue you because you stole my shit. A simple dialogue would have solved this but you preferred it this way. Now we will be in court discussing some N200,000,000 damages”, he said.
In a statement, the singer’s Lawyer, Principal Attorney at Creative Legal, Justin Ige, explained why the case was instituted against Tiwa Savage and Mavin Records. “Piracy is bad enough, but it is perhaps worse when creative people appear to completely disrespect the intellectual property rights of fellow creatives. Such conduct should not be without due consequences.
A lay man may not understand what we are fighting for as it is more technical than just the lyrics. Nigeria is a place where writers do not get credits from the artiste they wrote songs for because the artiste wants to get all the glory alone.
Producers also do not know that they have a right to royalties even after being paid for the beat. If I contribute one word to your composition, I automatically have a right to credits as one of the writers. This is a world standard and anything less is unacceptable especially when coming from an artiste that has international exposure”, he said.
Meanwhile, as at the time of this report, Tiwa, her management or Mavin Records were yet to respond or release an official statement on the matter.