SELLERS OF PORNO MATERIALS ARRESTED

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.