Desperate commercial séx workers
develop new strategies to beat directives
of the Federal Capital Territory
administration on their illicit operation in
the city centre, Punch's Olalekan Adetayo
writes.
For a civil servant who recently
transferred to Abuja from Ondo State, a
dating site, 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
prostitutés” 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.
Like every other urban settlements, the
FCT is having its fair share of the activities
of séx 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.
As of today, it may be difficult to see
these commercial sex 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
Punch correspondent showed 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.
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 sex 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
sex 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.
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