Uwaifo who released the monster hit song, Joromi in 1969 says the song has now become a victim of intellectual property theft as Simi failed to give credit to him when she released her own version in 2017.
Sir Uwaifo described copyright and Intellectual property theft as a very serious issue in Nigeria, that must be urgently dealt with as it is reducing the creativity of the new generation of Musicians. He says: “Copyright is a very serious business and the contravention of copyright laws is more serious than you can imagine.”
When asked if he was going to take any legal action against Simi, the professor who had once sued Pepsi replied saying: “One after the other. I cannot just take everybody to court at the same time. I don’t know whether he or she; I know she is but I know somebody is behind it.
“An LP was sent as a compliment; I’m still looking at it but they were planning to come to Benin to see me; up till now, they haven’t come, so I’m just putting that one on hold. ‘Joromi’ is a franchise; the name never existed before.
“Benin don’t have “J” in their language; if any started with ‘J’ in Benin then it is fake. All consonant words start with vowel sounds. For example, if I use the trademark of one of these soft drinks, it is wrong. So Simi is in trouble.”
