Court Dismisses Pan African Development’s N2 Trillion Copyright Lawsuit Against Federal Government

A lawsuit filed by Pan African Development Corporate Company Ltd. seeking N2 trillion in damages for alleged copyright infringement was dismissed by the Federal High Court in Abuja. The company had accused the Federal Government of using their intellectual property without permission, but Justice Inyang Ekwo ruled that the case was statute-barred under the Public Officers Protection Act (POPA) of 2004.

The plaintiffs claimed that their proposal, submitted for poverty reduction strategies, was used by former President Muhammadu Buhari when he launched a steering committee on June 22, 2021. Despite this, the lawsuit wasn’t filed until April 19, 2023, well past the three-month limit imposed by POPA.

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Justice Ekwo stressed that once a case becomes statute-barred, any right to legal action, enforcement, or judicial relief is extinguished, rendering the plaintiff’s claim unenforceable. Due to this delay, the court ruled that the plaintiffs had lost their right to pursue any further legal action, leading to the dismissal of the suit.

Pan African Development had sought 12 reliefs, including a declaration that the Federal Government and the Ministry of Industry had infringed on their copyright by using their proposal to create an Equity Investment Bank. They also demanded N1 trillion in compensation for intellectual property theft and an additional N1 trillion in general damages.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and its governor, also named as defendants, argued that the suit was filed too late and lacked merit. The court agreed, dismissing the case for being outside the allowed legal timeframe.