"We've Sold Our Soul to Devil” II: Drugs, Depiction of Teen Sexuality..Nigeria’s Dark Adult Industry
- As pornography is considered an affront to public decency in Africa’s most populous nation and carried out with the utmost secrecy, no active performer will denounce it
- Regardless, Legit.ng was able to meticulously execute an evidence-based reporting, exposing the questionable workings of the industry
- From substance addiction to brazen gay sex, to pimping, to the depiction of underage girls in videos, the Nigerian porn industry is riddled with illegalities
Warning: This is an adult-related story. Reader discretion is advised.
Ikeja, Lagos state - The pornography industry is a drug-infested one that often results in fatal outcomes for male and female adult workers. These performers take proscribed drugs to enhance their performance. Male actors have to stay in different positions, stay in each one for scenes at least 30 minutes and maintain an erection at all costs.
In some cases, pornographic performers resort to unprescribed drugs to tend to their mental health problems.
Source: UGC
Drug addiction remains one of the toughest health and social challenges, especially among vulnerable populations. The journey to treatment and recovery is often marked by stigma, limited access to care, and overwhelming personal struggles.
In January 2024, world-famous pornstar Jesse Jane died of an accidental fentanyl and cocaine overdose. English pornographic actress Sophie Anderson passed away in 2023, with her cause of death being an overdose of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB). Dakota Skye, 27, was found dead in a motorhome in Los Angeles, USA, in June 2021. The coroner ruled her death accidental after she was found to have taken a cocktail of drugs following a battle with fentanyl addiction. At least four other pornstars in the western part of the world have died of drug-related issues.
Coming home, I discovered a lot of x-rated videos, apparently shot on Nigerian soil, showing adult film performers taking ganja. This is despite the illegality associated with its use and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA’s) crackdown on cannabis kingpins and users.
Source: UGC
The effects of marijuana smoking can vary, with some studies showing potential for negative impacts on male sexual function.
According to a former porn cinematographer interviewed for this investigation, almost every pornstar is an alcoholic and drug abuser, and nearly all scenes are shot under the influence of drugs, which is why they sometimes can engage in gross, brutal and ‘unnatural’ sex acts. “Most often than not, they are subjected to very harsh and cruel sexual activities they never originally wanted to engage in,” the source, who prefers not to be named due to the sensitivity of the topic, shares.
As veteran porn performer Peter North puts it, “…stay(ing) hard on the set…is not easy,” even with the breaks.
There is also the overuse and abuse of erectile dysfunction (ED) medicines like Viagra and Cialis, to prove a sexual point.
"Some of these performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) and gins can put pressure on the heart," Dr Ewunuga Sheriffdeen, a licensed Lagos-based medical practitioner, tells me. "You know it is the heart that would pump blood, and it is the blood that flows to the genitals that makes erection possible for men. So, these substances may be pressuring the heart."
He explained that while PEDs may offer short-term benefits such as increased strength and faster recovery times, the long-term consequences often outweigh these advantages.
"When you take anything that is inducing, it adds more pressure to the body system. When you continue using those things, it would get to a point where there would be body resistivity (sic). Also, the illicit use of sex-enhancing drugs, particularly anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs) and potentially unprescribed or counterfeit products, can cause significant kidney and liver issues. These are the troubles."
When I asked Femi Babafemi, the spokesperson of the NDLEA, why the organisation seem to pay no attention to porn performers’ illegal substance use, he responded:
“In line with best global practices, we don’t prosecute drug users. We counsel them and offer them rehabilitation in addition to raising awareness about the dangers of substance abuse. However, we prosecute drug dealers, sellers and distributors while we seize illicit drugs from them. That’s the balance we provide in our drug demand reduction and drug supply reduction efforts."
I reminded the NDLEA official that his colleagues, in February 2022, famously arrested singers Zinoleesky, MohBad (now late), and four others at their home in Lekki, Lagos, for possession of illegal substances that included cannabis and ‘Molly’; he did not give a reply. Selective prosecution?
Explicit gay porn producers, performers spring up
Homosexuality is unlawful in Nigeria, and content that promotes same-sex relationships contravenes the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act and the NFVCB Act. They are discouraged.
The 2013 Same-Sex Prohibition bill was signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan on January 17, 2014.
The existing act prescribes 14 years of imprisonment for same-sex marriage and 10 years of imprisonment for aiding and abetting the act.
Still, members of the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community and porn producers continue to brazenly film and release homoerotic videos.
One internet personality, Stileswhore1, operates a gay channel on XVideos where he has amassed 11 million views. Running his gig from Lagos, he has posted dozens of videos, gaining over 5,600 subscribers while sometimes filming inside hotels.
Source: UGC
Another gay man, Blackdaniel1, has racked up 30 million views. 8,406 people are subscribed to his one-year-old channel, which often contains footage of sexual activities that took place in a house's compound.
Source: UGC
Dozens of lesbian videos produced by Nigerians, like one shot at Merit Resort, Lagos, also appear on XVideos.
In the same way, there is a dedicated lesbian channel on the aforementioned erotic platform dubbed ‘Nigerian Lesbos’, which has thousands of patrons.
Source: UGC
Depictions of teen sexuality
There is a huge market for ‘the young girl’ fantasy, as ‘teen porn’ yields more internet search results than any other category of porn.
Among porn’s most popular categories is the teen genre, which often depicts underage girls. Amid backpacks and schoolgirl dresses, grown men act out sexual fantasies with performers who are at least 18 in real life, but who are made to look and act like children.
In the Nigerian circle, Faith Melisa, a svelte and innocent-looking lady, is often cast by pornography producers as an emerging teen. Melisa’s channel has a total video view of close to 1 billion.
Source: UGC
Dr Shuaibu, the children's welfare expert, laments that the trend of pornographic content portraying certain adults as minors or teenagers is “deeply disturbing”. She points out that it has a significant threat to children’s well-being and safety, adding that the phenomenon promotes sexualisation of real-life minors and sexual fantasies about adolescents, which could translate to their sexual abuse and rape.
“Sexualisation of minors calls for the need for the Cyber Crimes Act to be updated to include punishment for pseudo-child pornography as done in other countries,” Shuaibu suggests.
Public sex acts and their environmental hazards
Apart from producers casting aside ethical boundaries to create content which promotes the fantasy of sex with children, another contentious genre is outdoor porn.
In 2020, King Tblak HOC embarked on an infamous adventure when he recorded a pornographic movie at the Osun Osogbo sacred grove.
Osun Osogbo is on the outskirts of the city of Osogbo, the Osun state capital. The sacred forest, home to Osun, the Yoruba goddess of fertility, is a United Nations (UN-designated) World Heritage Site.
Snippets of the video were posted on the pornographer’s XVideos channel at the time.
According to police, the popular porn movie producer was arrested for the controversial filming. He was arraigned in court and subsequently freed.
In his prime, King Tblak HOC also released audacious x-rated clips, shot at the premises of a government-owned secondary school in Osun state.
Much has not been heard of him in recent years.
Meanwhile, several other Nigerian porn videos show performers copulating on beaches, streams, rivers, and in open spaces in the country.
Source: UGC
In 2023, tapes appeared on XVideos showing Wild Lagos Productions’ actors having sexual intercourse at the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF-owned) Lekki Conservation Centre (LCC).
When I reached out to the management of the LCC to ask if the iconic conservation centre has now endorsed Lagosians shooting porn on its site, it denied permitting ‘any indecent or obscene activity within its premises.’
“We are not aware of any such occurrence as stated, and we would caution that any claims or reports should be based on verified facts. Kindly note that the management will review this information appropriately,” LCC said.
I then pointed out the said videos to LCC, which it acknowledged.
Legit.ng reports that while Nigerian law does not explicitly define ‘public sex’, it prohibits acts that are considered indecent, disorderly, or corrupting. Hence, engaging in sexual intercourse in a public place can be prosecuted under laws related to public nuisance, indecent exposure, or acts that are likely to cause corruption or are offensive to public decency.
Beyond morals, the improperly discarded condoms, at times left behind by pornographic actors who film in places like beaches, hurt the environment. Used condoms are non-biodegradable, meaning they cannot be broken down by natural and external factors and are therefore damaging to the environment.
While the utilisation of condoms significantly reduces the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), inappropriate management, particularly during the disposal stage, may diminish the public health benefits.
Although research investigating the risks of infectious diseases linked to improper condom disposal remains notably limited, evidence from fellow African nation, Ethiopia, indicates a more than twofold increase in hepatitis B (HBV) risk due to exposure to waste.
Despite the temporal sensitivity of pathogen organisms to survival outside the human body, evidence suggests that viral infections, such as HBV and Hepatitis C virus (HCV), can be transmitted in the environment.
For instance, a correspondence involving over 20,000 condom samples collected from 16 countries showed that approximately 1.3% of these samples harboured monkeypox virus (MPXV) double-stranded DNA virus.
Condoms that tested positive for MPXV were found in co-occurrence with various STDs, including Neisseria gonorrhoeae, herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), HSV-2, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Chlamydia trachomatis, Gardnerella vaginalis, Haemophilus ducreyi, Mycoplasma genitalium, Mycoplasma hominis, Treponema pallidum, Trichomonas vaginalis, Ureaplasma urealyticum, human papillomavirus (HPV), HCV, and HBV.
Although prevalence varied spatiotemporally, there is an indication that specific viral agents could survive long enough in the environment to present a potential health risk, especially in low-grade coasts in Nigeria with poor waste management infrastructure, deficient sanitary conditions, and high environmental illiteracy.
Source: Original
Bolaji Moruf Bisoye, an environmentalist, adds that when fishes eat condoms, they can suffer from an intestinal blockage, internal injury, and starvation because the material is indigestible. Latex, which most condoms are made of, can also discharge harmful chemicals into the body and potentially cause respiratory issues.
“The condoms left indiscriminately on the sand can end up in the ocean. They can be carried by wind, rain, or tidal action, and they are a non-biodegradable form of litter that pollutes marine environments,” he says. “It affects the fishes when they consume it, because it blocks their waterways. Dead fishes will then be in the ocean. When they decompose and burst, it causes pollution too. And those kinds of things also affect climate change because when marine animals consume indigestible materials like used condoms, it tends to affect them, and we have a lot of hazards on our ocean lines.”
Pimping in Nigeria’s pornography industry
Between November 2023 and October 2025, I monitored ‘Owen Henry’, a Nigerian youth who built a reputation as a model on XVideos. I furtively check his WhatsApp statuses, studying his ‘hustle’.
This actor shares random pornographic clips and routinely makes calls for applications for porn casting. ‘Henry’ mentions the per-shoot pay and reels out the requirements, which include a valid identity document.
Source: Original
Likewise, via Hookup TV, ‘Henry’ controls call girls and arranges clients for them.
‘Annie Blondie’, who worked with King Tblak HOC, was also spotted expressing her availability for ‘hookup’ rendezvous. Annie has over 42,000 followers on X.
Although I have verified how much porn performers in Nigeria get paid, at the risk of enticing young, vulnerable persons, I am withholding the details.
The ‘hookup’ disposition among some young Africans encourages and accepts casual sexual encounters, such as one-night stands, without necessarily involving emotional bonding or long-term commitment.
‘Hook-ups’ or prostitution in Nigeria is not encouraged. In the southern zone, activities like operating or owning brothels are illegal under the Criminal Code, and a law criminalises "carnal knowledge" for commercial sex. Holding a female in a brothel for sex work carries a prison penalty of two years. In northern states, there is Sharia law, which strongly opposes prostitution.
In March, moves to make sex work legal were rebuffed as the federal high court, Abuja, dismissed a suit seeking to legalise prostitution.
The plaintiff – Lawyers Alert Initiative for Protecting the Rights of Children, Women and the Indigent (LAIPRCWI) – had instituted the suit on behalf of the commercial sex workers. However, the judge, James Omotosho, ruled against them.
The senior lawyer asserted:
“Under the Penal Code Act, which is operational in the FCT, prostitutes are regarded as vagabonds under Section 405 (1) (d).”
Omotosho, who equally cited Sections 405(2)(d) and 407 of the Act, said “the import of the above provision is that prostitution constitutes an offence under the Penal Code Act.”
Abdulrasheed, the Abuja-based lawyer, clarifies that even though both the criminal and penal codes did not specify “hook-up”, it is regarded as prostitution in Nigeria, “and as such, since prostitution is illegal, hook-up is illegal too.”
Mental health issues and porn’s great risks
While there is no definitive data proving porn performers die at a significantly higher rate than the general population, they face unique health risks that contribute to higher mortality, including increased vulnerability to sexually transmitted infection (STIs), higher rates of substance abuse and depression, and a greater chance of mental health problems.
Ex-adult star Emily Willis, born Litzy Lara Banuelos, is now cared for day and night by her mother in Utah, United States. The American is unable to properly move or speak, facing the possibility of spending the rest of her life dependent on others. What happened was that Willis was struggling with ketamine addiction. The 26-year-old checked into Summit Malibu rehabilitation centre on January 27, 2024, seeking to turn her life around. But on February 4, a nurse found her unconscious. Her loved ones have since clung to a very slim hope of her survival.
Rehabs in Nigeria also play host to the country’s pornstars. Uglygalz, the adult film star and producer, in social media videos, opened up about how she was an inmate at a recovery centre in 2022. There, she spent two months treating and managing bipolar disorder, a mental health issue.
She recalls: “They gave me some books to read. And then, another doctor gave me a handout to read about schizophrenia. Then, I read about it, and then I started jotting down. Then, another doctor gave me an assignment and said I should tell him the drugs I take and how they affected me both positively and negatively, which I did.”
Her video can be watched below:
Uglygalz came out of the rehab and continued acting in porn movies.
Suicides, concealed cases of deadly STIs
Other misadventures of the performers are cases of STIs and suicide.
In Nigeria, before they can film, actors and actresses undergo blood screening. Some production budget between N500,000 ($523) to N800,000 ($554), depending on the number of cast. Still, this does not stop the spread of life-threatening sex-linked diseases.
In regulated markets, performers must test every 14 days. This includes high-sensitivity HIV testing using fourth-generation antigen/antibody test methods and full panels for other STIs. But an informed source tells me these medical protocols are not rigorously followed in Nigeria. It may explain why an HIV infection occurred on a porn set not long ago, even though the news was kept from the public.
“Many people don kill themselves for this Nigerian porn industry. But nobody knows, nobody carries it, no news, no blog. HIV ehn, some people did shoot wey everybody had HIV, but no blog hear am,” Uglygalz reveals, communicating in pidgin. “You know say we get small community, for Instagram, for Facebook, for TikTok, for everywhere. That small community just spread am, and e just spread small small, until e die down.”
At times, the testing may not entirely be the problem; the performer may have sabotaged the effort of the film company. A person can be infected by a partner outside of the production, and transmission can occur if an infected individual participates in filming.
Even when they are disease-free, people who appear in porn videos are generally subjected to social stigma. The blot on one's escutcheon can cause an individual’s self-esteem to wane, and not everyone has tough skin.
In 2020, a married woman who was paid to feature in a pornographic video that subsequently went viral in Jos, Plateau state, committed suicide. The tape had generated reactions from the public, with the victim stigmatised.
Between late 2017 and early 2018, five porn actresses died by suicide in 12 weeks. For years, some of them have dealt with depression and anxiety.
Speaking in the same vein, Uglygalz revealed that an adult actress and undergraduate took her own life in 2021 due to regret.
She divulged: “The girl that died, I told her ‘don’t do video’, she did videos. She said ‘I will do make-up, dem no go know say na me. I am like ‘which kind make-up you wan do wey dem no go know say na you?’
“Then, she did the make-up and now added tribal marks on both cheeks. Tribal mark wey be say if you don give blow job, e don clean. And then, she did the video, one year, two years, three years, she got to 300 level, she was using the money to pay her school fees. 300 level, her parents found out, the school found out. They said ‘oya madam, leave our school.’ She sent message, ‘anything that happens to me, I will be gone soon’. She started posting. The next thing, she killed herself in her house.
“The school fees she was doing porn for, wasted. The school she went to, wasted. The family that she expressed profound love for, they’ve moved on.”
Regretfully, the late actress’ videos are still accessible on big porn platforms as ‘the internet is forever’.
This is the last of a two-part series. You can read the first part of the story here.
Proofreading by James Ojo, copy editor at Legit.ng.
Source: Legit.ng
