Seven men jailed for possession of pornographic films in Kano

Seven middle aged men were on friday sentenced to six months imprisonment by the Kano State Censorship Tribunal over possession of pornographic films and illegal sales of movie clips.

Ibrahim Rabi’u, Haruna A. Magaji, Danjummai Abdullahi, Mukhtar Umar, Jamilu Ishaq, Nura Abdullahi and Salisu Raqib were found with the obscene materials on November 27, 2012, Senior State Counsel Hussain Hassan said .

The films, he said, tend to corrupt public morals, adding that engaging in the business of illegal download and distribution of films and video works violate section 97 (1),(A) and section 99 (1) of the cinematography (licensing) censor regulation 2001 respectively, and punishable under section 112 of the same law.


When the charges were read to the convicts, they all pleaded guilty and begged the court for leniency.
The state council, therefore, applied for the destruction of the computers that were used to download the said films and for the convicts to pay compensation to the producers and the censorship board as provided under section 97 (2) of the censorship board regulation 2001.

The Presiding Judge, Justice Mukhtar Ahmad, sentenced the convicts to three months imprisonment with an option to pay a fine of 20,000 naira each.

Justice Mukhtar also granted the state counsel application and ordered the convicts to pay N200,000 naira each as compensation to the censorship board and the producers of the said films or risk six months imprisonment under section 365 of the criminal court procedure law.

The court also ordered the Censorship board to destroy the computers as also applied by the Counsel.