The Director, Institute of Food Security, Environmental Resources and Agricultural Research, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Prof. Akin Omotayo, has urged academics to desist from laying claims to other people’s intellectual property.

Om0tayo, who spoke while delivering a lecture entitled Intellectual Property Rights Protection and How to Avoid the Trap of Plagiarism, charged them to be original and to engage in result-oriented research capable of engendering development.

In the lecture, the third in the series, organised by the College of Agricultural Management and Rural Development of the university, Omotayo frowned on the activities of some academics, who, he said, were not creative in contributing to solving the challenges facing humanity.

The IFSERAR boss, who described plagiarism as a criminal act, noted that it amounted to intellectual laziness to steal other people’s work.

He said, “Plagiarism, simply put, is stealing or illegally appropriating another man’s intellectual property. It means using another person’s protected work without due permission or authorisation.”

Many academic institutions, he said, paid less attention to the rules governing the protection of intellectual property, especially with the abundance of materials on the Internet.

He also called for the institutionalising of Intellectual Property Rights Protection Policy in Nigerian Research Institutes and Universities, saying it would help to eliminate plagiarism and encourage creative and competitive research.

Omotayo also advocated the establishment of an Intellectual Protection Office at IFSERAR, to assist scientists and lecturers to process IPR protection and educate workers appropriately.

On the benefits of the IPR protection policy, he said it would help to prevent plagiarism and provide an opportunity for investors and owners to define and claim ownership rights, and encourage further inventions.

He added that it would stimulate investments in the commercialisation of research products, and attract international organisations for research support.

The FUNAAB Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olusola Oyewole, who also frowned on intellectual theft, said the university had inaugurated the ‘turn-it-in’ software to guide against plagiarism.

That the university organised a lecture on intellectual property rights protection, he added, was an indication of its commitment to doing things properly.

Meanwhile, the President of the Veterinary Council of Nigeria, Prof. Garba Sharubutu, has urged newly inducted veterinary doctors to show enough commitment to the profession.

He gave the charge at the sixth induction of veterinary graduates of the university.