Sex video causes outrage

ABUJA (Reuters) - An amateur video of a northern Nigerian film actress in a sex scene has caused a public outcry in the Muslim north, prompting a movie industry body to expel actors deemed "immoral," a local newspaper reported Monday.

Leadership newspaper said the eight-minute video clip, recorded for private use on a mobile phone by the actress's boyfriend and showing the two of them naked, had circulated widely among mobile phone users across the north.

"This was the first time such exposure involving Hausa-Fulani persons was witnessed in the country," Leadership said, referring to the dominant ethnic groups in the generally conservative north.

Muslim clerics have condemned the clip and radio programs have been full of complaints about immorality in the film industry. The actress, who was not named by the paper, has gone into hiding, Leadership said.

Nigeria's hugely successful home video industry, known as Nollywood, is mostly based in the south of the country which is predominantly Christian and considered less conservative.

In the past few years a Hausa-language home video industry has sprung up in the north and has also become very popular.

Leadership said the Kano state Filmmakers' Association had reacted to the scandal over the sex video by expelling 17 actors deemed to have brought the industry into ill repute.

The 17 were not connected to the video clip but were "thought to be involved in immoral acts such as drunkenness and fornication," the newspaper reported.

Kano is among 12 northern states that started enforcing Islamic Sharia law in 2000, increasing tensions between the Muslim majority and sizeable Christian minorities all over the north. Thousands died in several bouts of sectarian violence.