The author of Last Days at Forcados High School, Dr. Ayobami Hanif Mohammed, is planning to sue JAMB and the Cassava Republic Press for conspiring to violate his copyrights.

The book, written by Mohammed in 2006 as a student of University of Lagos (UNILAG) was in 2014 accepted by JAMB as the official handbook for candidates in the Use of English on the recommendation of Fafunwa Educational Foundation.

The Publisher, Ms Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, was said to have signed an agreement with JAMB on behalf of the author for the book to be used between 2014 and 2017. Terms and conditions for the contract was agreed upon and signed by the parties concerned.

However, trouble started when the publisher after signing agreement with JAMB in 2014, turned round to request from Mohammed a lower royalty which the author refused on the premise that the fresh proposal was a violation of the initial contract.

According to him, his refusal to accept the offer and other issues arising resulted in his book being replaced by JAMB with another book from the same publisher as the recommended text for 2017 UTME candidates.

This got him infuriated, and is planning to initiate legal proceedings against the publisher and JAMB.

When contacted, JAMB spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin said, “We had an understanding with Cassava Republic, not the author. I don’t even know the author. The copies we are using for the direct entry candidates are the books we paid for last year, except the author wants us to return it so he would refund our money.”

On the sudden change of the book to the new one after persuasion by the registrar failed, he said, I’m not privy to the meeting with the registrar, like I said earlier; we had an understanding with the publisher not the author.”