PMAN to build entertainment village in Edo

The Edo Chapter of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN) said in Benin on Sunday that it was proposing a multi-billion Naira Entertainment Village in Edo.

The state chairman of the association, Mr Maleke Idowu, stated this when he led other leaders and members of the union on a courtesy visit to the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo Council on Sunday.

He said the village ‎would serve both as a revenue earner for the state and a one-stop point for entertainment activities.
Idowu said that the proposed entertainment village would boast of music and film schools, health facilities, a sports centre and other needs, for musicians and entertainers.

But the association has frowned at the activities of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), who they said has been collecting money on behalf of artistes, but was not transparent in the distribution of the revenue.
Idowu said the proposal for the entertainment village and a prototype of the village have been presented to the state government.
Meanwhile, PMAN also said that it had petitioned the state House of Assembly on the activities of COSON.

In the petition, signed by the association’s secretary, Willy Nova, Edo PMAN said the activities of COSON were already enshrined in Rule 3 (h) of the PMAN Constitution.
He said that PMAN was registered by the Federal Government on Aug. 15, 1984 to perform such roles and wondered why COSON would now begin to do that, without adequate remittances to the owners of the copyrights.‎

We appeal to Mr Speaker and members of the House “to intervene in this matter and stop COSON from the illegal collections and to also compel them to render account for all the monies they have collected,’’ the association said in the petition.

In his response, the Chairman, Edo Council of the NUJ, Mr Roland Osakue, lauded the leadership of PMAN in the state for conceiving the idea of an entertainment village.

He said the proposed village would be the first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa and promised that the union would support PMAN, to ensure that its members were adequately compens