Charles Okogene
The sudden death of Onyeka Onwenu, which has thrown the music world into mourning mood since Tuesday, is no longer news.
What, however, that seems to be the news and known exclusively to charlesokogene. com, is the fact that she was at the verge of been paid large amount of money running into millions as royalties accruing to her from the body of her works assigned to the Orits Williki chaired and Mayo Ayilaran led Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN).
An insider at the Ikeja, Lagos State based Society told this writer that the file for her payment was taken to the table of Ayilaran last Friday to approve the payment before she died on Tuesday.
” To me the whole thing looks like a premonition to me. The DG (Ayilaran) who was in far away Abuja for the inauguration of the Commission’s office called the Lagos office with the directive that Onyeka’s file be placed on his table so that he can sign the cheque for her payment as soon as he returns to Lagos. And that we did before the unexpected happened,” our insider said.
The source also said that Onwenu was one of the biggest beneficiary from the N2b windfall from court case MCSN won against MultiChoice Nigeria some years ago for exploiting the copyright of its members illegally.
” She got a large chunk of the money, that I can tell you. She did not die in penury. She was well taken care of by MCSN. You know she signed the body of her musical works to us and she is one of our members with not only a large reportier but very popular works that all radio, TV, hotels are exploiting on a daily basis. Anyway, we will still pay her money to her estate as provided by the law”, the source assured.
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