Commercial se-x workers develop new strategies to beat directives of the Federal Capital Territory administration, OLALEKAN ADETAYO writes Like every other urban settlements, the
Federal Capital Territory is having its fair share of the activities of
commercial s--ex workers. Once upon a time, these women of easy virtue,
draped in their skimpy dresses, dotted every major road and hotel in the
nation’s capital.
At a point, the FCT authority became
uncomfortable with the situation and so rolled out some directives to
put an end to prostitution in the city. The authority, through its
Secretary for Social Development, Mrs. Blessing Onuh, in fact, banned
the “business” in the city.
“I am out to instruct the girls that the
FCT minister has given them 48 hours to vacate the city and quit the
job. They constitute a nuisance to the city and the FCT administration
will not tolerate that. We are also sending warnings to those men
patronising them to stop. Some of the girls are under-aged; it is child
abuse. If we get you doing that, we will get you arrested and treat you
the way CSWs are treated,” she said.
Apart from creating a special taskforce
with the responsibility of arresting recalcitrant “runs girls”, the
FCTA, in its 2013 budget, earmarked N150m for their evacuation and
rehabilitation. Other vulnerable persons such as the destitute were
also considered in the budget. As of today, it may be difficult to see
these commercial se--x workers loitering around public places, but that
does not mean that they have left the city to sell their “ware”
elsewhere as directed by the Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed.
A two-week investigation carried out by
our correspondent showed that these ladies are still plying their trade
in the metropolitan city, but in different styles. Indeed, with the
arrest of many of them by the special taskforce for loitering, they
simply went back to the drawing board, devising new methods to up their
game.
One of such methods, findings reveal is
“online prostitution.” This involves employing strategies, such as using
social networking service. In fact, one unique approach is the use of
Badoo, a dating-focused social networking service, which operates in 180
countries. Report has it as the 136th most popular website in the
world.
According to a civil servant who recently
transferred to Abuja from Ondo State, Badoo is handy for him when he
needs female companions. He adds, “What I normally do is to launch my
Badoo wherever I am. Whether I am drinking in a garden or visiting
friends, once I launch it, my handset will show me ladies who are on
Badoo within that vicinity. It will bring out their pictures and we will
begin chatting. Anyone I decide to invite will be with me within 10
minutes because of her proximity.”
He notes that while some of the “online
prostitutes” will prefer to negotiate their price via online, others
prefer the face-to-face negotiation, perhaps with some bottles of drinks
to spice up the moment.
The use of smart phones is another
veritable platform. Here, their agents with such i-phones display
pictures (nude and semi-nude) of their friends and business partners, as
it were, who are up for grabs. Once they gain the potential men’s
attention, they show them the pictures from which they make their
choices.
Our correspondent ran into one of such
agents at a popular garden in the Central Area of Abuja and offered her a
drink. To reciprocate the gesture, the lady, who claimed to be Benita,
offered to provide her friend(s). “What are your specs (specifications)?
You like them chubby or thin. What size of boobs and buttocks do you
prefer?” These and many more questions came from Benita.
Without waiting for answers, she opened
her Nokia Lumina phone and next was a series of beautiful pictures of
young ladies in their early and mid 20’s.
“You will like this one, she is gentle. You will enjoy this one, she is jovial,” she said and continued using different words to advertise the special attributes of each of the ladies on her phone gallery.
On whether the ladies are her friends,
she said, “I knew them when I was doing girls’ business.” When pressed
further to explain what the business was, Benita recoiled into her shell
out of suspicion.
In order not to give himself away, our
correspondent asked her to call any of the girls who she could vouch
for. Tingling with excitement, she immediately promised to invite three
of such women to avoid any disappointment. But if you think that service
would be done without a price, you are dead wrong. In fact, this
correspondent mobilised her to carry out the task with a recharge card
and in less than 20 minutes, two of the ladies were already close to the
garden, desperately seeking information on the phone on how to reach
us.
But before they finally joined us, she
boasted, “Two of them are already close by. I do not want to turn anyone
of them back. You can pick your choice from the two. In case you want
to go with the two, you are free to do so. In this Abuja, I can
“control” 10 girls for you immediately without standing up from here.”
As soon as Sandra and Love (not real
names) joined us, they ordered drinks while I kept taking notes of the
sequence on my i-pad. Benita kept interrupting me, accusing me of not
concentrating on my guests. She whispered to me, demanding to know which
one of them I preferred or whether I would go with the two. When I
asked what it would cost me to take them; away, she replied, “I have
worked on them so you do not need to negotiate with them. Just take them
away and when they are leaving tomorrow morning, give them whatever you
can afford.”
At that point, I told her that I had an
evening meeting to cover and I promised to join them later. To erase any
doubt, I left enough money to cater for their drinks while the contact
person assured of keeping them company until I returned. Again, instead of loitering around, Abuja
commercial se--x workers now sit inside drinking joints or hotel bars,
occasionally engaging in one social debate or another. Indeed, since
they dress well, it will be difficult to take them for whores.
On Sunday evening, our correspondent, in
company with a colleague, drove to a popular hotel located in Area 3,
Garki, which is notorious for huge presence of these damsels.
Interestingly, these women of easy virtue were not on the street leading
to the hotel as was in the past. They have also adopted a fresh
strategy.
As we entered the hotel’s drinking
garden, there were no fewer than seven men with small kiosks inside the
garden. Apart from chewing gum and perhaps recharge cards, the other
most prominent items on display at the kiosks were all manner of cartons
of condoms. I bought a recharge card from one of them
in order to gain his confidence and talk to him. The trick worked. When
I demanded to know whether “babes” no longer come to the hotel, he
smiled and pointed to a corner where there was a live band. He told me
in not-too-perfect English that I had passed many of them unknowingly.
As we made our way towards the live band,
ladies who were already seated, pretending to be patrons who came to
drink, started making some unusual gestures towards us. Pronto, we found
out that they were CSWs who, for fear of arrest, no longer stand on the
roadside. No sooner had we gone past them than
different perfume ordour hit our nostrils. So also were clouds of
cigarette smoke. They also maintained eye contacts with us with the hope
that we would invite them. They were however disappointed as we made
our way back to our car and drove off.
A banker, Emmanuel, told our
correspondent a story of how commercial se--x workers contribute money to
rent houses in the city centre with about five or more of them sharing a
single room. He recalled how one of his friends who went in search of
one of the ladies in Area 8 ended up sleeping with not only the lady but
also with one of her roommates.
Although efforts to get the reaction of
the FCTA to react to the new trend did not yield any result, a source
told our correspondent that it would be difficult to tackle.
No comments:
Post a Comment