By Tony Okoroji
The date is etched in my mind. It was December 15, 2020. It was a Tuesday. Prior to that date, I had gone through the biggest health challenges of my life.
For seven weeks, I was mostly on a hospital bed, unable to go to my office at TOPS or visit COSON House where I am Chairman of the Board.
Early that Tuesday morning, I was at COSON House in Ikeja for the first time in weeks. The good Lord, in his infinite mercy, had given me some respite. I was at the COSON boardroom, busy on my laptop preparing my address for the COSON Annual General Meeting scheduled to hold later that morning. Suddenly, my phone began to ring off the hook. Some hopeless persons had posted materials all over social media that I had been whisked off by the police from Lagos to Benin-City, the previous night, and I was being detained and quizzed for fraud!
Naturally, my friends and family were agitated, especially with my health condition. Everybody began to call everybody and alarm bells began to ring.
Tolu Balogun, the brilliant COSON Communications head, had to take an instant photo of me at COSON House which he posted on social media to show that contrary to the fake news, I was live at work in Ikeja and not in any police dungeon in Benin. It was then that nerves began to calm.
Later the same day, I chaired a full meeting of the COSON Board and thereafter, a fantastic 10th Annual General Meeting of COSON, at the COSON House Arena attended by first class COSON members like the late great Sir Victor Uwaifo.
While the AGM was ongoing, another fake news story popped up all over social media declaring that COSON House had been sealed off by the police and the AGM which was streaming live to thousands of people on Zoom, had been aborted!
Unfortunately for the imbecile behind the news, the COSON 2020 AGM turned out to be probably the most successful COSON AGM ever and photos from the AGM were published everywhere for all to see. Nobody sealed off COSON House. There was no reason whatsoever to do so.
I instantly knew who was behind the stupid and desperate scheme to discredit me, take over the COSON AGM or abort it. I know the make-up of the Yahoo-Yahoo Gang, who so badly want to milk the music industry and feast on music at the expense of the musicians of Nigeria. I know their ringleader. While he deploys some innocent musicians in his scam, the ringleader is a not a true musician. He is a carpet bagger and opportunist who considers music, his gold mine and musicians, his “mugus”.
He had devised a plan to get me out of Lagos, abort the scheduled COSON AGM, take over the magnificent COSON House and the resources of COSON. People had been bussed and positioned to actualize the plot.
The intricate plan was indeed a diabolical scheme to arrest me in Lagos, on Monday, the day before the AGM, quickly drive me all night to Benin City, get a magistrate to remand me on some trumped-up charge and lock me up in Benin, through my birthday, December 22, the Christmas and the New Year celebrations. The fact that my health condition was not good made the wicked plan more sumptuous. The idea was that if I died in detention, the better!
The chief engineer of the plan so badly wants to make himself the emperor of the music industry in Nigeria, using the police and other law enforcement agents to harass and intimate everyone. He has no visible source of livelihood and wants to milk the music industry and feast on music and become rich at the expense of the musicians of Nigeria. He thinks he is a mafia don.
I know that I had been identified as a major block to his mad ambition and I had to be taken care of.
The first stage of his plan may have worked. Late afternoon, on Monday, December 14, I was indeed accosted as I was entering my car, by four men, in front of my TOPS office in Ikeja, which because of my ill health, I was visiting for the first time in weeks. The men said they were police officers from Benin City and that I had to follow them to “Area F” Police station in Ikeja. The plan was to detain me at “Area F” and drive me away to Benin City, later that night, without food, without my medications, without a bath, without a change of clothes.
I was truly kept behind the counter for hours at “Area F” as my abductors waited for nighttime to come and the midnight journey to Benin City to begin. As midnight approached, I got someone to make some calls. After a while, definite instructions were given to the policemen on duty to let me go immediately. I left “Area F” after midnight.
My traducer went to bed not knowing that his plan had failed. He was already celebrating. He could not wait to see my downfall and had sent the word to his social media hacks that I had been arrested and was being “quizzed” in Benin. He counted his chickens before they were hatched!
Early morning on Tuesday, while I was at COSON House Ikeja, preparing for the AGM, the social media hacks went to town and began to spread their fake news.
The stupid story they were spreading is that I pocketed the coronavirus distribution by which COSON sent palliatives to its thousands of members across Nigeria, during the COVID 19 lockdown.
Fortunately, of the thousands of COSON members who got the palliative, nobody was paid in cash. It was all done by bank transfer. The records are there of all the people, their bank details, when they received the money, their tele phone numbers, etc.
As I wrote in the last Saturday Breakfast, I thank God that COSON House keeps excellent records. I took the huge print out of paper containing the records of the payments with the names of the thousands of recipients, their bank account details, their telephone numbers and handed it over to the police to investigate. Nobody ever called me back to say that they found one person who did not receive money that was said to have been paid to him. You know that scammers believe that everybody is a scammer.
I am committed to doing the work that the Almighty has asked me to do and to do it diligently. I am committed to touching lives. I will not be intimidated by anyone because I know that no great nation in history has been built by cowards.
I thank the good Lord for sparing my life each time it has been threatened and making me the man who drives on a full tank of faith.
