Confiscated movies and other unclassified products worth between N500 and N600 million have been destroyed by the National Film and Video Censor Board (NFVCB).

The burning of the pirated works, which was carried out by the agency led by its Executive Director, Alhaji Adebayo Thomas, was supervised by the Inspector General of Police and the Minister of Information and Culture.

Augustus Babajide, Director of Entertainment and Creative Services, represented the minister.

Thomas noted that the public burning of the illicit products in Abuja was symbolic as it marks the official take-off of pirated works in creative industry.

He said: “Over N600 million worth of pirated and unclassified videos and compact discs were destroyed within Abuja.

The exercise is symbolic and marked the official declaration of anti- piracy war across the country.

The ED noted that the offenders can only run but cannot hide as the hands of law will definitely catch up with them.

“If they hear of this exercise and decide to hide, there is no problem. It means they cannot be able to sell the copies. We have started today and we are not going to stop,”he said.

The ED further blamed the lingering problem of pirated creative works on carelessness of producers who surrender their works to individuals before getting censorship.

“Rather than bring their works to be censored, they give them to people who do not value intellectual property.’

He therefore urged producers to ensure they come forward themselves to do the censorship of their works themselves.

He stressed that under the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the ease of doing business has been made so easy.