Illegal movies and equipment worth more than N10 million were yesterday burnt by the Lagos State Film and Video Censors Board (LSFVB). The movies included pirated and unclassified local and international movies, pornographic movies as well as duplicating machines which were seized in a recent raid in Ijora and Ikorodu areas of Lagos.
Speaking on the exercise, the Executive Secretary of the Board, Dele Balogun said that raiding and burning of confiscated illegal movies was done to discourage people dealing in such items to desist from doing so: “It would be a continuous effort to rid the State of the sale of such items as those that were caught for the burnt films had been prosecuted,” Balogun said.
“The State Government had been inundated with complaints from artists about the problem of infringement of their intellectual property rights and we are aware of the possible consequences of this problem on the entertainment industry. Besides, some individuals sell films that did not pass through the process of censorship which are all products of piracy,” Balogun said, stating government was concerned about the trend, especially as artistes were not getting maximum benefits from their works and commended the Yotuba sector of Nollywood under the umbrella of the Movie Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria (YOVIPMAN) for collaborating with the Board. Calling on other bodies to emulate the gesture so as to sustain the war against sale of illegal movies, Balogun reminded practitioners of the need to always obtain film shooting permit from the Agency assuring that obtaining such a permit is a guarantee against harassment from area boys.