A war of words has erupted between Nigerian online entertainment firm iROKO Partners and Michael Ugwu (pictured far left), who has been fired as chief executive of music service iROKING for “gross misconduct”.

On Thursday, iROKO Partners released a statement saying that Ugwu was fired from the firm’s music service iROKING after he allegedly set up his own digital music offering.

This move allegedly broke iROKING’s confidentiality and non-compete clauses, according to iROKO Partners. Other iROKING staff members have also been fired, the company has said.

iROKING is a West African music distribution platform, with over 35,000 tracks from 400 plus artists. The company says it also manages the YouTube channels of over 80 artists, "delivering 15 million video views on average a month, with over 130,000,000 views across its pages."

iROKO Partners in a statement about Ugwu on Thursday also added that as part of an organisation-wide restructure, it has “decided to streamline the iROKING team based in Lagos.”

Ugwu, though, has issued a public statement in which he hits back at the company for firing him and for the way in which it is ‘streamlining’ iROKING.

“I would like to state for the record that a decision to wind down iROKING was taken before the iROKO management ‘apparently’ fired me,” says Ugwu.

Ugwu says he was “verbally” asked to become the chief operating officer (COO) of iROKO Partner’s investment arm Spark.

But he says he refused the offer as he wanted 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 (the CEO of iROKO Partners, pictured middle).

“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,” says Ugwu.

Ugwu has also posted what appears to be a text message from Bastian Gotter (pictured far right), who is the co-founder and managing partner of Nigerian startup seed fund Spark and the chief operating officer of iROKOtv. Although unverified, the message suggests that iROKO is seeking to get out of the music industry (see image by clicking here).

Regarding the controversial firing of Ugwu, iROKO Partners says it has given six-week severance packages to the dismissed staff.

However, Ugwu claims the staff to date have not received the money.

“I believe that Jason Njoku 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,” Ugwu says.

Ugwu adds in the statement that he is working on his next venture.

Meanwhile, ITWeb Africa has contacted iROKO Partners global communications officer Jessica Hope for comment regarding the firing.

“I'm afraid that enough has been said in the public domain for the time being and we will now let any further discussions happen behind closed doors,” said Hope.

iROKO Partners at the time of writing, though, has not responded to questions from ITWeb Africa regarding Ugwu’s public response.