°economic downtown has affected their business
° sedate her child with Chelsea dry gin before going out at night
° tactics to which they do defraud unsuspecting guy
“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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