The Federal High Court sitting in Jos has restrained JayFM 101.9 from airing the radio programme Silent Voices, after ruling that the station infringed the copyright of its creator, Nanji Nandang.
In a landmark judgment delivered on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, Justice Sharon Tanko Ishaya held that Silent Voices is the exclusive intellectual property of Nandang and that its continued broadcast by Jay FM after her resignation amounted to copyright infringement.
Nandang’s counsel, Gabriel Ofen-Imu, Principal Partner at Royal Attorneys and an intellectual property expert, disclosed the outcome in a statement issued on Saturday. According to him, the court granted all declaratory reliefs sought by the plaintiff, issued a perpetual injunction restraining Jay FM from broadcasting Silent Voices in any form, and awarded general damages against the defendants.
“The court clearly held that the defendants were in breach and had no right whatsoever to continue airing Silent Voices. They are perpetually restrained from broadcasting the programme, and damages were awarded in favour of the plaintiff,” Ofen-Imu stated.
The suit, marked FHC/J/CS/2/2023, was filed by Nandang against JayFM 101.9 and its Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director, Garuba Clinton.
The court ruled that the defendants had no legal right to continue airing the programme after Nandang’s resignation and withdrawal of consent.Describing the judgment as a “complete victory,” Ofen-Imu said the ruling is a major boost for Nigerian copyright law and sends a strong message to media organisations on the importance of respecting intellectual property rights.
“This is a victory for copyright, journalism, and the creative industry. Content creators, interns, innovators, and media professionals should be confident that their rights are protected unless they voluntarily transfer them,” he said.
The court further reaffirmed the settled principle that copyright ownership resides with the person who conceived and expressed the work, not the organisation where the creator worked, especially in the absence of any agreement transferring such rights. Jay FM, the court noted, failed to prove the existence of any contract of employment or copyright assignment that would divest Nandang of her rights.
Ofen-Imu also warned that the judgment is binding on the defendants and that any violation could expose them to contempt proceedings.
Recall that Nandang approached the court in January 2023 after Jay FM allegedly continued airing Silent Voices following her resignation in August 2022, despite her request for the programme to be withdrawn. The station later reassigned the programme to another staff member and subsequently renamed it The Restrained after the suit was filed.
