By Akinwale Kasali
The area is no doubt a cynosure of all eyes. A first timer in the area would be attracted by the lights that illuminates the area, either there is power from the Ibadan Electricity company or not. The power generating set is always on as from 7pm.
Ladies of easy virtue from ages between 15-21 years dressed half nude line up at the front of the hotel named Five Star Hotel, on Sapon-Ake road, Abeokuta, for prospective clients to come and have a quickie or swell time.
These young ladies are either working for different madams who brought them from different parts of the country, mostly from Akwa Ibom, Edo and Cross River States, and have their eyes wide open as their protégé or ‘girls’ move into the rooms with their clients.
Immediately these ladies come out of their rooms with clients after the short time sex, they remit the money collected from their clients to their madams.
The prices of short time sex in these area varies. It is between N300-N1500, depending on the bargaining power of the clients. Atimes, it is higher than that. While, for Till Day Break, TDB, is between N2000-N4000.
For accountability sake, their madam counts the condom given to them on a daily to ascertain the amount that ought to be remitted to her for every sex escapades.
Their madam however give them stipends on a daily basis for feeding and some other expenses. The ladies are barred from using phones, so as not to have any connection with their families or friends who they could tell their predicament.
When Precious Inyang (Pseudonym) left Eket, Akwa Ibom State, for Abeokuta in Ogun State, she was hopeful and optimistic that she would wipe off the tears of her poor parents, whose major source of livelihood was farming.
Precious was the first child in the family of six. She had just finished her secondary education in the remote suburb of Eket. Precious like her peers, saw Lagos and Ogun State as a safe haven where they could live and make money.
Their sole aim was to go into business in these states, by engaging and learning a trade in which they too could become a boss of their own after understudying their bosses.
They saw every person in their village that had been to Lagos, Abuja and other developed states as a ‘demi god’ who could give them solace in achieving their goals and ambition. They all believed that in seeking greener pastures, states that has massive commercial hubs is the next destination.
Her madam, Queeneth, took her from her parents and her cousin, promising to bring them to Lagos or Ogun State to learn a trade in which they could raise money to finance their poor parents and become the breadwinner of their families.
Happily, the parents released their children, with the hope that after few years they will become bosses of their home and wipe their tears.
Precious and her cousin never had the premonition that Queeneth was introducing them to prostitution.
The first thing she did was to give their parents N20000 as the amount paid by their bosses who they are going to work for at the states mentioned above. The parents gullibly accepts the offer, not knowing that Queeneth had an ulterior motive.
Precious told the magazine that they are forced to engage in the job because immediately they arrived in Abeokuta, their madam collected their phones and made them talk to their parents at her own convenient time.
“We had no choice than to obey her command because we have nowhere to go. She brought us here, and we don’t know anybody, so we just have to endure. We were surprised when we saw some of our mates that had left the village earlier also doing the same job”.
Precious said that due to the fear that was instilled in them before coming over by Queeneth, forcing their parents to sign an agreement that they won’t disturb her or interfere in the way she treats the ladies.
“Our parents see her as an helper, so they treat her with respect, she is highly respected in our community in Eket, even the King knows her, she is always given award on a yearly basis by the King of our area, because they saw her as an illustrious daughter of the community who is assisting others. Not knowing that she engages us in prostitution. It’s a cartel. They have a group that engages young ladies in this job”.
Precious revealed that at Madojutimi Street, off Abiola Way, off the Abbattoir in Abeokuta, there is another location of Five Star Hotel where she also has ladies she used for the job.
She added that they are moving some of the ladies now to certain states in the south west to expand the business.
The tale of Precious is similar to that of 15 year old Chelsea, whose parents were gullible to have trusted Queeneth, who promised to get Chelsea a housemaid job in Ogun, only to make the girl a sex hawker for her own selfish interest.
“I thought I was going to be working in the house of one big rich man as a maid, as Aunty Queeneth as promised, only to be become an ‘ashewo’. I lost my virginity to this job, and I have vowed that it is this job that I will use to become rich and famous”, Chelsea said boldly.
Most of this ladies who smoke marijuana, cigarettes, take tramadol, Rephynol, codeine, gum and other hard drugs to get high, say they do this to put aside their sorrow and make money.
According to Chelsea, “If we don’t get a client to sleep with us that means no food for that day. During our menstrual cycle is hell. We are given N500 per day to eat, and we will still work for that money when we are done with our menstruation because our madam made it known that they are just helping us”.
When the magazine visited the Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Youth and Sports and Social Development to inform them of the sex slave camps in areas across the state, mostly in Abeokuta, they promised to swing into action and bring the perpetrators to books.
Areas that play host to this kind of sex slave camps include; Ori Gada in Lafenwa area of Abeokuta, Oju Agbara area, Itoko area, Isolu, Gbagura, Elemere, OkeIlewo, Onikolobo, Adatan, Bode Ijaiye and Kemta on Ajebo road,
