By Elizabeth ADENUGA
National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) has called on the government, through the security agencies, for support in the fight against piracy as well as unclassified and uncensored movies and songs.
The Executive Director of NFVCB, Mr Thomas Adedayo, disclosed this on Compliance and Enforcement Training in Lagos on Sunday.
According to him, the workshop is designed to bring all major stakeholders in the film, video and musical industry together, interact, exchange ideas and profound solutions to major challenges in the industry.
“The uniqueness of this workshop can be seen from the composition of the participants.
“Such as the Nigerian police, legal firms in the intellectual property rights, the Nigerian Customs, DSS, NDLEA, EFCC, legislators and NSCDA, ” he said.
Adedayo said that the board had been in collaboration with Nigeria Police and had made good efforts, resulting in huge number of arrest of criminals in the industry, especially in 2017 and 2018.
He noted that President Muhammadu Buhari had given a nod to this event through the Inspector-General of Police and they are very eager to see the outcome of the three-day event.
“The President is very keen and interested in the creative industry, therefore all hands must be on deck to improve on the achievement.
“At the end of the workshop, four committee will be set up and assigned desired roles to play in sanitising the industry, ” he said.
Also, a veteran actor, Adebayo Salami, also known by stage name, Oga Bello, commended the board for it’s effort toward sanitising the industry.
He said that the industry had been enjoying the dividend of copyright works under the administration of Mr Adedayo.
“I appreciate the board selfless efforts and we, the Nollywood practitioners, would ensure that we give maximum support to the board to achieve its plans and objectives, ” he said.
Earlier, Ayodeji Ogundele, the Deputy Commissioner of Police in Ogun, said that the workshop served as great challenge and an opportunity to the Police to contribute its quota to the creative industry.
Ogundele, who represented the Ogun Commissioner of Police, Ahmad Mogaji, pledged the Police support in fighting the scourge of unclassified and uncensored movies and songs.
