Jason Njoku Michael Ugwu
iROKING is the sister company to iROKOtv which is both owned by Jason
Njoku. Just like iROKOtv is known for Nollywood movies, iROKING was
built in line for music. They wanted another great platform for music
just like they have with iROKOtv and made Michael Ugwu the CEO of
iROKING. Something went wrong between him and Jason earlier this month
and he was fired. Nothing was heard from both sides until today, when
Jason Njoku's team made a press release. Michael who felt not all what they said was true, decided to say his own part and informed the public he will be starting something else pretty soon. Sadly, Michael is one of Nigeria’s leading young tech executives and Jason Njoku is also one of the best in what he does.
Find their statements below...
From Jason Njoku's Team
We can confirm that Michael
Ugwu
is no longer the CEO of iROKING and has left the company. He was
dismissed earlier this month with immediate effect for gross misconduct.
It came to light that, whilst under contract and salary of iROKING, Michael Ugwu set up and launched his own
digital music platform, in direct competition with iROKING. This is an
unequivocal breach of the robust non-compete and confidentiality clause
he signed when he joined the iROKO team. We will not be divulging any
further details on the subject matter for legal reasons.
A number
of the iROKING staff have also been dismissed on the grounds of gross
misconduct. This action, alongside the dismissal of Michael Ugwu, was taken by the iROKO Management team in order to protect the intellectual property and reputation of our online music platform, as well as our artists’ work.
As
part of an organisation-wide restructure, we have decided to streamline
the iROKING team based in Lagos, and have now redistributed a number of
the core tasks across our global teams in London and New York. These
changes have been made in order to make the strategic and day-to-day
running of iROKING more effective and productive.
Those who left the company have been given a generous six weeks’ severance pay, which is 50% more than stated in their employee contracts.
iROKING,
as one of Nigeria’s leading digital music platforms, continues to
showcase some of the country’s most prolific and exciting artists. Since
launch, we have recorded over 350 Million YouTube hits for our artists
and we have over 1.1 Million users downloading tracks from our online
and mobi platforms every month. We remain committed to our artists and
our users and continue on our
mission to support and develop digital distribution for Nigerian
artists. We expect to announce a new CEO for iROKING in the coming
months.
Michael's Response
I would like to
state for the record that a decision to wind down iROKING was taken
before the iROKO management “apparently’” fired me. I was verbally asked
to become COO of Spark Ltd which I summarily refused stating my
intention to stay in the music space. It has been clear for some time
that iROKO Partners wanted to exit the music space culminating in the
winding down of iROKING so I am still fully trying to understand how I
would set up a platform to compete with a platform that was to be
“scrapped” according to Mr Jason Njoku.
For the record I would
like to see physical evidence of the digital platform I have set up. A
copy of the apparent companies registration will suffice. I also
strongly suggest to the management of iROKO Partners that rather than
sending out press releases and writing blog posts on their personal
blogs they should first tidy their house and/or pursue serious legal
action.
In the land of iROKO I guess restructuring means getting
out of a sector. Nigerian artists please beware of iROKO Partners
apparent commitment to developing the digital distribution space.
(Please see attached screenshot)
In the Ventures Africa blog post I was fortunate enough to read Jason
Njoku’s mention of a 6 week “generous” severance package for iROKO staff
however to date all the iROKO staff affected in this saga have not
received such. I implore serious investigative journalists to verify his
claims. Seek out former staff and ask questions.
I believe that
Jason Nkoju has possibly spent far too long distributing Nollywood films
online so much so that some of the sensationalist story lines influence
him.
If iROKO Partners wishes to pursue legal actions I suggest they do such or I will see this is flagrant defamation of character.
Last
year iROKO Partners Lagos had circa 80 staff, now there are circa 15
remaining. At a time many of us were loyal to the iROKO cause, however
serious structural issues have arisen so much so that many have felt it
safer to find employment elsewhere. I wish the remaining staff members
and management the best of luck in their future endeavours.
Thank you for all the phone calls and text messages showing concern.
I am working on something rather exciting and will be announcing my next venture in the coming weeks.
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