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. 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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