Film & Video Board reviews enabling law to make it more stringent

 
Mr Okolue Chiedu, Deputy Director, Monitoring and Enforcement, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the existing law was not stringent enough as distributors evaded aspects of the law. 
 
Chiedu said the  law  was longer effective and needed to be reviewed, adding that the board  had to look for other ways to put the violators in check.                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
 
``The law says that if you release a film without the licence of the board you pay N5,000.
 
``This is not effective on a distributor who knows he can make a profit of N1 million on a film, we need to review the law so that it will be stringent,” he said.
 
He said that the board targeted distributors who were located in Lagos, Onitsha, Benin and Kano since films were produced more in those areas.
 
Okolue noted that the law, which was made in 1993, had a minimal fine and people could now pay more which gave them the opportunity to break the law.
 
He noted that distributors not only refused to comply with the law but always worked together to make it difficult for the board to oversee successful compliance. 
 
``The problem we face is that we have tried to arrest a few of them to serve as warning to the rest but they rally round each other and make sure that cases do not go anywhere in court.
 
He said the board had to adopt the method of arresting a person in one part of the country and trying him in another to reduce the chances of working together to slow down the hearing.
 
``Another problem is that the distributors do not have any regulatory association,” he said.
 
Okolue said the persistent effort made by the board had reduced the level of offenders as the percentage in violation was dropping but noted that the quantum of cases was rising.
 
He said that the board received 60 per cent compliance from distributors in Onitsha, 90 per cent in Kano and just 20 per cent in Lagos.
 
He said that because of the high level of non compliance in Lagos and lack of manpower, the board signed an MoU with the Lagos censorship board, the local government and also received the support of the state government.
 
Working together, he said, gave the board easy access to courts that were on hand to prosecute violators whenever raids were carried out.
 
Okolue gave the assurance that if the board was successful in eliminating violators in Lagos State total compliance would be achieved all over the country