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The Chief Executive Officer of NetNaija, Emmanuel Analike, has been arraigned before the Federal High Court in Abuja on charges bordering on copyright infringement and remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre pending a ruling on his bail application.
Mr Analike established Netnaija Media Enterprises in 2019 as a sole proprietor specialising in internet services. The company’s platform, Netnaija, became one of Nigeria’s most visited entertainment websites, offering downloads of films, music, and videos to a broad audience.
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However, Mr Analike appeared before Justice Suleiman Liman on Wednesday following a suit filed by the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), which accused him of possessing, reproducing and distributing pirated movies and music through the NetNaija platform.
Charges
The charges were brought under Nigeria’s strengthened copyright regime introduced by the Copyright Act 2022, which expanded the scope of offences and imposed stiffer penalties for intellectual property violations.
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The defendant pleaded not guilty to the counts.
His counsel applied for bail during the hearing, but Justice Liman declined to deliver an immediate ruling. Instead, the judge ordered that Mr Analike be remanded in custody pending the court’s consideration of the application. The bail ruling has been fixed for 9 March.
Major enforcement action
The case represents one of the NCC’s most high-profile enforcement actions against an online piracy platform in Nigeria.
For years, NetNaija has been among the country’s most visited entertainment download sites, offering free access to films, music and television series. The platform reportedly attracts millions of monthly users, despite persistent complaints from filmmakers, musicians and other rights holders who argue that such websites undermine legitimate distribution channels.
Officials of the copyright commission say the prosecution signals a shift toward holding platform operators accountable rather than focusing enforcement solely on individual users who download pirated material.
Industry frustration
The arraignment comes amid growing agitation within Nigeria’s creative industry over intellectual property violations.
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In 2025, Nollywood actors and producers, including Omoni Oboli and Bimbo Ademoye, publicly accused some Ghanaian television stations of broadcasting their films without authorisation. This controversy reignited debate across West Africa about cross-border copyright enforcement.
PREMIUM TIMES also reported controversies around script ownership and copyright claims within the industry, including disputes involving the online distribution of Nollywood films and allegations of duplicated scripts and unauthorised uploads.
