“There is no money in the country. Guys are complaining,
but at all at all na him be witch. Wetin will man pickin do?
We have to collect the pay like that. I have been here since
and the guys wey dey come my way just dey price
anyhow. You no see as you dey price too.
And if I tell you to do quick rest for N3, 000, you will say
no. They want it all through the night,” said one of the
prostitutes, who gave her name as Jessica. She spoke
both pidgin and proper English. According to Sunday
Telegraph’s investigation, the prevailing downturn in the
economy seems to be affecting everything in the country,
including the services of commercial sex workers, who are
currently complaining about bad business. Many of them
were seen loitering without patronage. At the arrival of the
correspondent, at Heavens, a popular night club on 1st
Avenue, Festac, Lagos, about three different ladies came
trying their luck.
One of them, Titi, was literally begging to be taken home
by the correspondent, who priced her far below the normal
prices (between N7,000 and N10, 000) charged on the
axis. She had initially mentioned N15, 000 per night before
the bargaining ensued.
The correspondent had priced her N5,000, which she
eventually accepted and was saying “okay let’s go to your
house, I will do you well, you will enjoy me.” Other ladies
met on the same spot were insisting on N8000 or N10, 000
per night.
“Oga this one wey you dey price like this, you no go fit pay
for all night. E go better if you go for quick rest. Quick rest
na N2500. Let’s leave the full night. I have a place, where I
lodge on 21 Road, let’s go there and enjoy ourselves. I’m
sweet let’s just do quick rest first. Long night is N10, 000
but as you dey price so, you no fit pay for full night. I will
do you well and I will give you my number so that you can
call anytime you need me,” said Stella, another woman of
the night. It was surprising to see Jane, who was
complaining about low or no patronage and the fact that
our correspondent, isolated her for a discussion but didn’t
take her home, prayed that God would give her another
customer. “You know that you don’t want to carry me to
your house and you came here and wasted my time.
If I had stood at that place, somebody else would have
carried me. After now you will go and pray God to bless
your business but you are here spoiling my own business.
Go, let me wait and see if God will give me another
customer this night.” This was emotional outburst of this
young lady, who thought she had caught a big fish for the
night; perhaps, she didn’t see anything wrong with
prostitution rather, what she does to keep body and soul
together.
Similarly, some girls, who go into prostitution, have
different things in mind.
Jane believes that God is aware of her business and
perhaps, prays each night that God will give her a good
customer (sex mate).
What an irony of life. Jane had also insisted that her price
was N10, 000 and nothing less. The reporter was shocked
to the marrow when Jane made this utterance. At Allen
Avenue, Ikeja, at about few minutes after 11pm, another
lady of easy virtue was met and although she started with
N5000 for what she called, “short time,” she later accepted
N2000 for “short time” but refused to go all night for,
conceivably, fear of entering into wrong hands, she didn’t
accept to go to Isolo and as a result, didn’t discuss her
terms and conditions for a sex vigil.
“N2000 is the last price for short-time. Isolo is far, I can’t
go to Isolo. Let me stay here and keep hassling.” In
another development, it was obvious that low patronage
was plaguing them due to the prevalent economic situation
in the country. Yes, according to Tricia, men still come
around because they need women, but they are not willing
to settle for high prices. In Tricia’s eyes, you will find thick
layers of desperation. She appealed: “I will do you well.
If you want, I can do you inside this car. I will s..k you and
after s..king you, I will f..k you. You will enjoy it and then I
will give you my number. If you want all night, I can go for
N4, 000 but if you want quick rest, I can take N2, 000. Let
me come in…”
But despite her desperate moves to be patronised, the
Correspondent turned down her self-invitation into the car.
She was the only person in all, who accepted N4, 000. This
happened between 12pm and 1am. At another location, a
nursing mother prostitute in Aguda, Surulere, one Juliet,
said, the country is tough, and she cannot afford to stay at
home in order that her girl child does not die of hunger.
“I have a child. In the course of my business, I got pregnant
and I didn’t want to abort the baby. It wasn’t easy for me
then but I needed to keep the baby. I used to give her
Chelsea dry gin every night so that she can sleep all
through the night until I come back. Yes, I still get
customers, off course, they don’t know I have a child but
even if they know, they will still patronise me,” she said
confidently. Also, another girl, Shola, who looked between
17 and 21 years old, said her own price was N8, 000, “non
negotiable”.
She refused home service due to a bitter experience she
had, which she didn’t disclose to the correspondent.
However, the correspondent’s curiosity to know why she
was so scared of home service, prompted him to press
her. But she replied: “Never mind.” Dark and tiny-waist
Shola, who claimed to be a student of the University of
Port Harcourt, does not believe in talking, rather, she
allows her waist entice any man.
“I don’t believe in talking, my action will speak for me.” “I
don’t do this always. I only come out when I’m very broke.
Like now, I’m very broke and I need money. Since you said
you just want to make love to me once, please, instead of
keeping me in your house after that, please let me go and
perchance, I can get another customer.
Instead of N8000, you can have me for N5000 and let me
go,” Cross Rivers State’s Cynthia appealed to the
correspondent, thinking she had a customer. On the safety
precautions As safety precautionary measures, some of
the sex workers do not accept to visit a guy at home for
fear of being gang rapped but anyone that is contemplating
doing that will ask a number of questions to the potential
customers, to determine the level of her safety, including:
“Where do you live? Do you live alone?
And what do you do for a living?” are some of the
questions begging for answers from the male clients. In the
same manner, when Sunday Telegraph approached Zika,
one of the sex workers at Apapa, and tried to move away
from the vicinity for fear of running into someone who
knows him, the girl said: “Please don’t drive off, we have
not finished and you have not told me what you want.
Please, just take it easy. I don’t want to go far. You can’t
really say who is who. You don’t trust guys now.” But on
the assurance that she wasn’t going to be hurt, she
calmed down and started responding, though with some
level of scepticism.
Responding to the question, why she was so scared of
going home, she said she had been raped by three guys,
who lived together. “ They claimed that they paid me for
the night and therefore, must continue till the morning.
Yes, I was paid but I didn’t bargain for that and since then I
have always being careful.
You men can be mean,” she concluded.
Also, at Ajegunle and the neighbouring community, Orile,
the prices are quite very low. The reason given, being that
rich men don’t live there, hence, most of their male
customers are bus drivers and conductors; others are
okada riders and few who are not ready to part with
reasonable amount of money. For her, any guy that pays
N1000 will want to die on top that prostitute. “Most of my
co-workers travel as far as Festac and Lagos Island to do
their businesses.
Guys in Ajegunle will like to do free and even do on credit.
But it’s not because they are stingy, it’s they don’t have.
‘The thing dey hungry them but they no fit pay. If you no
stay well, they go rape you,” said Christy.
However, there is another group of sex workers that one
can classify as special prostitutes or celebrity harlots or
student aristos. Their prices are high and they do not stay
on the road with miniskirts or hopping around any man that
comes their way. Though in the prostitution business, they
carry themselves with some degree of respect.
In some cases, they have their names, pictures and phone
numbers in some hotels and they are called upon when
they are needed. They are well dressed and neat. Most of
them are undergraduates, who are short of cash in the
school. They speak good English. Thelma, a student of
Mass Communication, Yabatech, Lagos, is a good,
explanation of such celebrity prostitute.
Sunday Telegraph met her at the front of the popular
Golden Tulip Hotels in Amuwo Odofin, Lagos. She was well
dressed in a skinny jump suit (overalls), who didn’t portray
the business she is into. She sounded reasonable in her
good English diction. She said: “It’s N8,000 or N10, 000 for
the night, else no deal.” The correspondent tried to price
her down but she insisted, even as she was priced N7,000.
Trying to make her understand that things are generally
bad in the country and there is no money, she insisted that
other guys are paying. She appeared not to be grounded
with the business but as a student of Yabatech, as she
claimed, she may have come clubbing and decided to have
a ‘quickie’ for cash.
She spoke good English and appeared mannered that one
wonders what is happening. This is the thinking that
prostitution has been taken to another level, where the
business is not left in the hands of illiterates, living in the
brothels alone. They are upgrading. Among these ‘special
prostitutes’, these are the real risk takers in the business.
This group of girls travel to all parts of the country to visit
their clients, who may even be within the locality of their
targets but claim to be coming from some distance away.
They source phone numbers of their targets through
friends’ facebook as well as other means and call up their
targets. Their discussions with the targets are suggestive
of self invitation. Sometimes, they claim to be one that the
targets know. Sunday Adekule had an encounter with one
of them.
He recounts his experiences: “I had an encounter with one
of them. I don’t know how she got my number and called
me up.
When I got her call, her voice sounded familiar and I
mentioned a name that she assumed to be. And because I
just met the girl, whose name I dropped, I barely discussed
with her to find out she wasn’t the one. “So, in our
discussion, I asked when she will be coming to Lagos and
she quickly said next week and we continued like that. To
my greatest surprise, she came on the appointed day.
When she knocked, I came out and she greeted. I couldn’t
believe what I saw, so I started thinking within me: ‘Have I
met this girl before?’ I was confused. “Certainly, this
cannot be the girl I spoke to at the programme and I asked
her, ‘Where you in that programme,’ but she replied, ‘Are
you scared?’
Of course, I wouldn’t show her that I was scared and I said
scare of who? “Unfortunately, that mental process couldn’t
continue as I got a call from my boss that I should come
back to the office. It was already 7pm and I was thinking,
‘am I going to leave this girl in my house and go to office?’
Eventually, I decided to lock her inside but when I tried to
do that, she caught me and asked, ‘Are you locking me
inside?’ and I said no.
“Alternatively, I called my neighbour and briefed him to put
an eye on my apartment. I wasn’t really comfortable with
it that I had to tell one of my colleagues in the morning,
who charged me to start rushing home, before I meet my
house empty, which I did. By the time I got back, she had
already cooked spaghetti with eggs. The girl was so
relaxed.
“So, I couldn’t take it again that I started asking her
questions and had to carry her back to ensure that what
she told me was her name was actually her true identity. I
saw her bank ID card, so I called my cousin who works
with that bank to confirm the address of the girl. When I
went harsh on her she stated crying saying that I wasn’t
treating her like a lady. She said she was leaving. I felt
bad but did that for my safety. It was getting late and I
told her to wait till morning but she refused. “Then, I asked
her how much she spent coming to Lagos. She said N3500
and I gave her N5000.
Two days later, another girl called me claiming to know
me but the experience of the other girl didn’t allow me to
join her in any conversation. It was later when I told some
guys the story that they made me to understand that such
is how that class of prostitute make their money.
“They will claim to come from distant place without
knowing that they are from your locality. So, when you
give them transport fare to Abuja, they pocket it and go to
wherever they are coming from. They know that after a
night rest with them, you will not be wicked enough to
leave them empty-handed.” In another funny development,
a prostitute along Old Ojo Road, Lagos who saw a well
dressed man, suspected to be having some cash, held him,
saying he slept with her and didn’t pay. She claimed that
her fee was N3,000.
The man was thoroughly embarrassed. While it was
happening, passersby were telling the man to settle the
prostitute and stop disgracing himself but the man kept on
saying that he didn’t know the girl from anywhere. In the
process, the wife of the man who was a fighter came and
saw what was happening and said her husband cannot do
such and asked the prostitute the colour of her husband’s
pants since she claimed that her husband slept with her.
And the prostitute said “white nah” but the woman said
that her husband doesn’t wear pants rather boxers and
started beating her.
It was then that she started begging the woman whicothers
join in beating her. On protection against harm On
protection: “I don’t use charms but I know some people
that use charms to get customers. Some of them put it in
their powder. Once you look at their faces you can’t resist
them again. When they get customers that pay well, they
will also want to have them forever. Also, some will use it
to protect themselves from those ritualists.
The charm will make their spirit alert not to follow wrong
persons. To some, when you want to hurt them you will
end up hurting yourself,” said Ese. According to her, they
use condoms to prevent pregnancy and other sexually
transmitted diseases. “With condom is normal price but
when you want flesh to flesh, you have to pay higher, like
N3,000 instead of N2,000 for short time. You know that
without condom is risky. You can impregnate me or give
me disease. So, the extra money is for me take care of
myself, get contraceptives.
Men like flesh to flesh because it’s sweeter. “I don’t like
home service because some guys will contribute to pay
and when you get home, all of them will take turns to sleep
with you and if you resist them, they will rape and give you
wounds. You might have three guys sleeping with one girl.
It’s not good nah. The something dey pain nah.
Some of them will go and take ‘manpower’ and they will
sleep with you all through the night. And their something
will not get down all through,” she explained.
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