Schoolgirls Recruited Into Prostitution In Calabar

Four schoolgirls have narrated how they were recruited into
prostitution by a suspected human trafficker, Abigail Nweke
Alo, in an alleged brothel located in Calabar business area.
Felicia Nzuworgar, 17, Patience Williams, 18, Angela
Benjamin, 17 and Charity Nkwogor, all from Okun and
Vandeikya Local Government Areas of Benue State, said
Abigail, who they called ‘Chairlady’, took them from their
homes, in January, under the pretense that she was taking
them to Lagos where she had a drinking spot to work as
sales girls but ended up as sex workers in Calabar.
I was selling oranges in our market in Okun when she
tapped me on the shoulder and I turned thinking she
wanted to buy oranges but she told me she had a business
in Lagos and wanted me to follow her. I did not know what
came over me. I just followed her without even telling my
parents and friends where I was going”, Felicia told Sunday
Vanguard.
Patience, a senior secondary school 2 Student in
Vandiekya, on her part, narrated that she was plating a
friend’s hair in front of her grandmother’s house where she
lived when Mike, a commercial motorcycle rider, who lived
in her neighbourhood, came to inform her that a lady was
looking for someone to work in a beer parlour in Lagos, and
wanted to know if she would like to go with her.
I told Mike that I was still in school and could not go with
the lady and that she should look for someone else. But
instead of looking for somebody else, Mike went and
brought the lady and when she looked into my eyes, I
simply went inside and packed my clothes and followed
her without waiting for my grandmother who went out to
come back”, she stated.
Recounting her own experience, Angela said she was on
her way from school when the lady met her and told her
she wanted to take her to school in Lagos and also assist
her (Abigail) in her beer parlour business and she went
with her into the bus where other girls were waiting.
They girls, on their way from Benue to Lagos, stopped in
Enugu where they spent the night in the house of a man
who, according to her, had seven wives. The man was said
to have given them concoction to drink after which they
were warned that if they tried to run away, their private
parts would rot and they would die.
“The man took us into his medicine hut and gave us the
concoction to drink and, when we refused to drink, he beat
us. He told us that if we went out without drinking, we will
die. After we drank, he said that if we ran away from
‘Chairlady’, our private parts would rot and we will die”,
Felicia said. According to her, after the encounter with the
man, the next day, they continued their journey. “We got to
Calabar in the night and when I asked ‘Chairlady’ if this
was Lagos, she said yes”.
The next day, at the alleged brothel where they were
lodged, the girls said Abigail gave them boxer shorts to
wear and begin to ‘hustle’ for men like other girls in the
place were doing. When they refused, ‘Chairlady’ descended
on them and beat them mercilessly. “We arrived Calabar in
the night and, the next morning, she collected our phones
and brought boxer shorts to us that we should wear and,
when we asked her where the drinking parlour was so that
we could start work, she said we should hustle like other
girls were doing by sleeping with men and, when we
refused, she beat us up mercilessly”, Patience narrated.
According to her, nobody came to their rescue as all the
prostitutes in the brothel were afraid of Abigail because
she was their head.
Everybody in the hotel was afraid of her because she was
their boss and, if anyone dared to challenge her, she will
send the person out of the place”, she said. They had to
agree to begin sleeping with men after some days as
‘Chairlady’ allegedly went on beating them ceaselessly and
denying them of food. “You can see marks on our bodies
because of the beating we got”, Angela said. They
recounted how each of them slept with an average of
twenty men every day while Abigail collected the money
they made, leaving them with N500.00 as feeding money.
The girls explained that when they started the commercial
sex work, it was very painful as they were not used to
sleeping with such a large number of men daily.
It was very painful when we started. Everyday we slept
with an average of twenty men for N500.00 each and,
because we were young and new, men would line up and
wait for us till about 12 midnight when the hotel closes and
then ‘Chairlady’ will come in and collect the money and,
since she used to count the condoms she was giving us, if
you did not give her all the money, she will beat you
mercilessly”, Patience said. The girls said Abigail had male
aides who searched their rooms and their bodies at the
close of work each day to ensure they had not hidden any
money and, if any money was found with them, they would
be beaten up.
They said Abigail, on arrival in Calabar, having collected
their phones, did not allow any of them to step outside the
alleged brothel for fear that they might run away and that,
two of them, Angela and Charity, who attempted to escape,
were severely beaten by the woman and her male friends. “
When I tried to run away, she brought a soldier and a
policeman who were her friends who beat me up and
poured tear gas in my eyes and, because of that, I became
very sick and could not stand up for many days”, Angela
recounted.
On why they followed the woman without letting their
parents know even as they were still in secondary school ,
the girls said once the woman touched them on the
shoulder, they became hypnotised and went with her.
Abigail, who claimed to be from Ebonyi State, said her
arrest by operatives from Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of
Cross River State Police Command was due to jealously.
She said she was not the one who brought the girls to
Calabar. Mr John Eluu, Cross River State Police Command
Public Relations Officer, said the suspected human
trafficker will face the law and warned young girls to be
cautious of promises of jobs in Lagos or any other town by
human traffickers without proof.
Chairlady’ has since been charged to court for alleged
kidnapping and engaging in prostitution.