Four distributors of pornographic materials were
arrested at Cele Bus Stop on Oshodi-Apapa Expressway on Tuesday by the
taskforce after the police raided the area.
The Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and
Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit has begun clampdown on distributors and
sellers of pornographic materials across Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.
Those arrested will be arraigned before the Special
Offences Court at the taskforce yard and prosecuted for selling obscene
materials. The sellers of the materials arrested are Yinka Dada, 25 years; Udoh
Nne, 29 years; Sylvester Obodoe, 18 years and Poopola Bamidele, 18 years.
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The culprits admitted that they knew hawking
pornographic materials is prohibited in any part of the state. Obodoe said he
knew the act was outlawed in the state but resorted to hawking pornographic
materials to eke out a living. He pleaded for mercy and promised not to violate
the law again.
Taskforce Chairman, Bayo Sulaiman, said there had
been complaints by the residents of the resurgence of pornographic materials on
the streets of Lagos. He reiterated that the government has banned the selling
or distribution of such materials as the act has a negative influence on
children.
“We got complaints from the residents that
pornographic materials were sold in some parts of the state. We had cleared the
materials off the streets of Lagos before but the traders are back to business
again. We have to arrest them and to deal with the situtation. We are going to
charge those arrested to court to serve as deterrent to others,” he said.
According to him, displaying pornographic materials
on the streets where youngsters could see them has negative influence on the
children. “Whenever you see pornographic materials being displayed, you always
see children viewing or looking at them. It influences them negatively. We have
a culture in Yoruba land which we must abide with,” he stated.
Sulaiman added that there is a law against
distribution of pornographic materials in the state, which the taskforce must
enforce. “We are not infringing on their rights to sell, but they are
infringing on the rights of these children by exposing such obscene materials
to them,” he added. He warned others still hawking pornographic materials to
desist from doing so because government would go after them and prosecute them
according to the laws of the state.
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