Porn movies: Next to hoteliers,school children are our top buyers –Vendors

Very few people will readily talk about porn movies but it does not change the fact that a lot of people watch the film that now go by different names.

Investigation shows that these movies, which many frown at, have a sizable followership and consequently, a large market in Lagos that includes underage persons.

Over the years, porn movies have been generally called by various names including Adult movies, Stag movies and Blue films. But the common street terms in Lagos, as put by porn movie vendors include Triple X, Mojo, BF, Adults’ and Porno.

Although, these movies ought not to be sold in the country, this is, however, not the case in Lagos, where porn movies are publicly displayed, including for the curious eyes of underage persons.  Basically, porn CDs with lewd cover pictures can be found at major junctions from 6pm, openly displayed together with regular movies, to draw the attention of passersby. Some of the vendors have adopted a trick of covering hard porn CDs with soft ones that show exposed bodies, but without the sexual organs in view. However, there are some others that display covers with hard core sexually explicit pictures in their stalls.

One of such CD vendors identified himself as Mr. Kingley. He displays his ware at Ojota in the evening. He told Saturday PUNCH that his customers vary from “young and old, male and female.” Kingsley also said that his patrons include persons of secondary school age.

He said, “Women also buy porn (movies) here but their age starts from around 30 years upward. But for men, they can be as young as 15 years and could still be in secondary school.

“A lot of these young school children come for porn movies and I sell to them. Of course, it’s market (business) now; we have to sell.

“When those young ones (underage) come, they quickly pick the porn CD they want up, put it inside a nylon (polythene) bag and say ‘take the money’. They do this because they don’t want any delay.”

Kingsley, however, added that no one had challenged him yet for selling porn movies to underage or displaying them in the evening.

“If you don’t display them, you may not sell well, because sometimes, it’s when people see the cover that they know what you have and get interested,” he said.

“Lagos is a place where people mind their business, so nobody challenges me at all and it’s not my business where they (underage persons) watch it. But they may decide to hide the movies in their rooms and watch them when their parents are not at home.”

Meanwhile, a cross section of porn movie vendors in Lagos identified their movies as popular with the public. But in spite of porn movies’ blockbusting status, their vendors said many of their patrons are shy of openly demanding for them. Hence, the vendors have mastered their customers’ countenances and are able to read them.

A porn movie vendor at Ikeja, who identified himself as Wale, described the trend as natural for adolescents.

Wale said that young underage boys probably use the movies as a self-help tutorial for sex education as they reach puberty and become aware of their sexual urges.

“I don’t know much about girls but I think that the boys buy the porn movies to teach themselves about sex, and we heard that some of them also use the movies to masturbate,” he said.

But in Wale’s opinion, the appeal of porn movies to underage persons has been an age long trend, unfortunately passed down from generation to generation.

He said, “Recently, a young boy came to ask for porn; I asked for his age and he said (that he was) 16 years. It reminded me of when I was in school too. Today, I think it’s wrong for underage persons to watch porn movies but many of us knew about it when we were still in secondary school. I remember that we used to generally call it ‘Blue film then.”

However, Peter Udoh, who sells porn movies along Awolowo Way, also at Ikeja, described the area as a prime position for the porn movie business in Lagos.

Udoh said he buys CDs using a “70-30 ratio”, with porn CDs taking the larger share relative to regular CDs.

He said, “Porn movies sell more here than ordinary (regular) movies. If I have only ordinary movies, I don’t think that I will sell much. No one will sell well by relying on the ordinary movies alone.

“So, when I buy movies, I buy 70 per cent of porn movies and 30 per cent of others like action and season movies (series). I buy more porn movies because I sell at least 20 porn movies a day and sometimes it could be more.”

Udoh said his biggest customers are hoteliers, who could buy as many as 20 porn CDs at a go. He said that hoteliers usually require porn movies for lodgers who request for them, thereby sustaining their loyalty to the hotels.

Next to hoteliers, Udoh identified school pupils as top on his list of “regular” customers.

He said, “Some who run hotels come to buy as many as 20 porn CDs at once, so they can give to customers who ask for them at night. We also have people who buy because they just enjoy watching it; they don’t use it to have sex. Apart from hoteliers, we make a lot of money from pupils who are always looking for these films. We also have another set of people who buy the movies to learn new styles when they want to have sex.”

Udoh also claimed that some of his customers are even frank enough to share their plans with him during their visits.

He said, “When a woman comes to buy a porn CD, they are usually up to something. It’s most likely that they want to have sex. A woman who should be around 28 years was here recently to buy a porn CD. As she was picking the one she wanted, she said ‘this man will kill me tonight’ but I told her that they would enjoy it.

“Some of the female customers buy it to give to husbands who are not keen about sex; they will play it for them to get in the mood.”

Udoh said such women never go straight to the point, “They will first ask for romance (movies) and after giving them romance, they will now come out to ask if I have a ‘raw’ one.”

To help out his shy customers, Udoh said he pays attention to their faces to determine the ones that want porn movies, but shy to openly ask for them.

He said, “Most people won’t come and ask for porn movies during the day, they will come in the night and when they come, I know what they want. Some will be shy but once I look at their faces, I know what to give them.”

In the period that our correspondent was with Udoh, six persons came separately for porn movies.

One of them, a commercial tricycle rider popularly called Keke Marwa rider, who refused to give his name, picked four porn CDs at once.

Udoh said the Keke Marwa rider was one of his customers, but that night, the man, who looked to be in his early 30s, said he was buying them for his friend.

He said, “It’s true that I buy here often, but these ones are for a friend. I had told him about some interesting ones I watched and he asked me to get them for him too. But when I buy, it’s just to enjoy at home alone or learn new things from them.”

He, however, denied that he was addicted to porn, saying he could stop seeing them anytime he wanted to.

Another customer, who identified himself as Mike, said he liked porn movies because of the “action inside”.

He added, “I also like to watch it when I want to have a female visitor but after, I destroy them (CDs) because I can’t watch them more than once and don’t like to have them lying around the house too. It’s only when I feel like watching it that I buy and I destroy it afterwards.”

Interestingly, it seems that some conditions also predispose some people to buy porn movies.

According to Mr. Sunday Johnson, an official of the Agege zone of Audio/Video CD Sellers Association of Nigeria, the sale of porn movies is always better during weekends or when it rains.  But Johnson claimed that he never sells porn to underage persons, due  to his position at AVCDSAN, describing it as unethical.

He said, “Particularly when rain falls at night, we sell more because some people will feel cold. Sale is also good during weekends, especially when it rains rainfall too. Some people will come and say ‘Give me better BF or Adults’, but I don’t sell to underage persons.”

Johnson’s style is to place CDs of romance or soft porn movies on hard porn movies on his shelves. He said he does that to prevent underage passersby from having to see the lewd images on the CD covers.

He said, “The pictures on the romance CDs are still better than the ones on the ‘raw’ ones. These ones only show nakedness but not the main things (organs). I don’t sell porn movies to children if their appearance suggests that they are still young, although, I know that many others sell to them because of the money.

“When the secondary school students go to buy porn CDs, the sellers sell to them at a higher price because they don’t like to wait too long haggling over price since somebody they know may see them if they stay too long. So those children end up paying over N200 for a N150 CD because they are in a hurry.”

Investigation shows that the porn movies with the most sexually explicit cover pictures attract the most buyers.

Johnson said, “The ones that show more action are the ones people go for.”

Basically, porn movie vendors have been preying on people’s addiction to porn to sustain their businesses. But interestingly, investigation shows that many of them also struggle to fight off a similar addiction to porn.

He said, “What happens is that when some people watch the movies once or twice, they become addicted to porn and even stop liking movies where people don’t show their nakedness. Therefore, it becomes a habit for them and they come back for more and more of latest porn movies.”

But according to Johnson, like his customers, he became addicted to porn a few years into the business, adding that it affected his other interests and almost destroyed his marriage.

Johnson said, “I got addicted that time because some customers would return the porn CDs they bought and say the CD was bad. Since I don’t have a CD player at the shop, I would take them home to check them and I gradually became so addicted that I couldn’t watch anything else again.

“When my wife and children are asleep, I would be watching porn movies. A few times, my wife caught me watching them but somehow, didn’t talk. After a while, I made up my mind to stop and I stopped watching them, although, it was tough. But today, they don’t move me again; maybe because I see the covers everyday, so I don’t feel there is anything special inside.”

Johnson also explained that most porn movie sellers end up becoming addicted to porn because some customers ask for their opinion on the movies they sell.

He said, “Customers urge us to watch the movies so that we can tell them if they are interesting or not. So, some CD sellers end up liking the movies too much too.”

The Deputy Director, Corporate Affairs, National Film and Video Censors Board, Mr. Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, described the sale of porn movies as “totally illegal”.

He said, “In fact, it’s a criminal offence in our law to sell it, whether in the morning or at night. Even people who watch porn movies are watching them illegally, but we can’t do anything about it when people watch in their  rooms.

“It is completely illegal, according to Section 202 of the Penal code in the North and Section 232 of the Criminal code in the South, which prohibit the sale, rental and display of pornography. We are not that sophisticated like the advanced world, where they are able to check the age of people they sell to. We know that here, a young guy will enter and they will sell porn to him.”

Abdullahi attributed the display of porn CD covers in the night to the agency’s pressure on the vendors. He, however, added that the agency had begun plans to also adopt a strategy that would check the excesses of CD sellers.

He said, “Most of these film sellers have moved into the night because of the pressure we have put on them. But now, they have shifted their clandestine operation into the night to do all sorts of things, when they know that we’re not working.

“But we’re working with undercover agents to stop this, so that no matter when they come out, we will also be ready for them.”

Also the Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Damasus Ozoani, pledged police commitment to support NFVCB in its operations, “although, it’s not the primary duty of the police.”

He said, “Selling porn movies to underage is illegal but it’s not directly under our purview; but when the Censors Board is going on an operation, our men go with them. We are always available when they need us.”