Inside the strange world of prostitutes

Date: 17-03-2010 5:56 pm (14 years ago) | Author: Daniel Bosai
- at 17-03-2010 05:56 PM (14 years ago)
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When prostitutes in Lagos State announced their impending conference, Daily Sun’s undercover CHRISTY ANYANWU enrolled as a member to get to the root of her findings are an excussion into the world of prostitutes. It was strange. Who would believe it? A group of Prostitutes making a public announcement of their intention to meet to discuss issues of importance to their members.


On getting this information, the reportorial instinct in me nudged me to follow up the story.

What happened thereafter was as amazing as the story was not only true, but events that took place at the prostitutes meeting was amazing. For about three days, I made discreet investigations to trace the venue of the meeting which took place at Ifako, Agege.

I traced the hotel and pretended I wanted to be a member. I got to the hotel at about 12 noon that fateful day, and I noticed the derogatory manner people I asked for direction to the hotel attended to me.
I got to the place and walked straight to the bar attendant. I requested to see the manager. The guy asked if I’m a registered member.

I told him I was a first time comer, (of course I spoke like someone ready for the business) and he directed me to a place I will register. According to him the girls comes in from 2pm and if they meet me hanging around they will molest, disgrace and chase me out of the premises. I entered the little office and the guy there said I should register with the sum of N5, 000 (five thousand naira) to become a registered member of the hotel. “You will submit two passport photographs, your telephone number and address. After registration, you can choose the hotel you’ll want to operate, the one closer to your residence. We have many branches in Lagos. That amount is renewable every year you’ll pay N100 after each huzzling.”

I pleaded with the young man if I could hang around for a while and pay him later. He bluntly refused, he said he allowed some ladies in the past and afterwards they just disappeared into thin air. “N5,000 is nothing, if you can huzzle very well, you’ll make triple that amount in a day. Here the least money you get from a man is 1,500 (one thousand five hundred) but in other branches like Agege, or Oshodi, the men who patronize that place are ruffians, some are bus drivers and conductors and they pay N500(five hundred naira). Sometimes, they sleep with the ladies, won’t give them money and on top of it all beat them up. So, when you are ready with the 5k, you are welcome.
I left his office, promised to call back. Few days after, I went for the registration. This I did to enable me attend the meeting slated for February 6th. The meeting started at 12. Noon but this time at the hotel annex, at Agege. The agenda of the day was “ ways to move forward in 2010”. The hotel management spoke about etiquette and comportment. For them a nicely dressed lady with finishing touches here and then in terms of make-up attracts men easily. They also harped on, the need to pay their dues of N5, 000 to the hotel. According to them, the hotel spends so much on the law enforcement agencies anytime they come to raid the girls. “Have we allowed any one of you to sleep in the cell or at the back of the counter? He asked.

There and then they pointed at few ladies who need to buckle up in terms of dressing and socializing. “You are too slow and you will not get customers and if you even get they are bound to cheat you, so you’ve got to wake up fast, be sharp after all you didn’t come to Lagos to count the bridges.” As he said this, other girls burst into laughter. He also warned them about fighting, “From henceforth anyone found fighting on the street will be suspended for two weeks.” One outspoken lady, who I later found out, is the leader told the managers that the N5, 000 is on the high side. “Oga, we have met among ourselves and we want to plead that we should be paying the sum of N4, 000 instead of N5, 000.


It was a prolonged argument in the house. Eventually, N4,000 was approved as the official registration fees for prostitutes. The leader suggested they should have a Valentine all-night party on Val’s day. “Dress code is red and also bring your friends along. The hotel managers agreed to make the place lively and promised to make adequate publicity to attract customers. The marked my first task.
How would I pretend on Valentine’s Day? Already, I got a ‘customer’, whom I gave a fake name and purposely got a new sim card to keep in touch. On our first meeting I made him realize I can’t spend much time in that particular hotel and have to rush back to the campus for lectures. He agreed to my terms and he promised to host me for Valentine.

After Church service on Val’s day, I sent a text message to my brother. (whom here, I call him Randy). I want him to accompany me to the hotel. I told him my assignment and as a social scientist\researcher he didn’t decline. We set out around 7pm with another friend of his. When we arrived the hotel and my ‘customer’ was fumed, seeing me with another guy. His thought, I don’t know. I walked up to his seat, smiled but his was a hard face, “Ashewo must be Ashewo no matter what”. He said. I walked back to my companion, who was already gulping a bottle of beer. My brother told me the place was not lively, “the ladies here are timid”, come let me take you round Ikeja and you’ll see girls, of different shapes and sizes.

We set for Ikeja at about 8.30pm. The first port of call is a popular hotel on Aromire that starts with alphabet J and the vicinity was buzzing with prostitutes and hard looking guys seated outside with bottles of beer. As we alighted from the car, I saw the difference from where we were coming from. From the two identical two-storey building as we walked through to the bar, goose pimples ran through my body. I was afraid and inwardly covering myself with the blood of Jesus and praying for our safety that night. The Nood and half naked ladies coupled with the hard look of the men in the bar gives an aura of playing in the lion’s den.
Randy ordered for drinks. This time two bottles of stout and a bottle of maltina. “You are the odd person in this room. Why didn’t you put on a jeans trouser? What is your bag doing here; you should have left it in the car. Don’t you know that most of these men are ‘guy men’? I became afraid and hid the bag underneath the table.


Right inside the bar, the ladies kept parading like models, twisting their bodies, half of the boobs outside, and wearing a macro mini skirt revealing their panties. Meeting the men and speaking words to their ear. (That act was strange to me and I kept muttering, Jesus is lord.) My brother pinched me. I was amazed seeing beautiful ladies, well figured and educated hanging out as prostitutes.

My brother approached Adaeze, she said she’s a student in Delta State. She was stunning in her one inch-long skirt. She said out rightly that the least she could settle for the night was 5k(Five Thousand Naira). As he was trying to bargain for three thousand naira, she stood up and said “If you are serious, meet me in room 14 and she walked away.” Ain’t they ashamed that a lady is seated beside you, listening to the conversation? I asked, “She’s Ashewo now, she’s got no scruples, and she’s not in love with you but your money”, he replied.

He stood up and approached another pretty slim girl, dressed in pink sexy gown. She introduced herself as a student who came to stay with her friend in the hotel. Her last price was N5, 000. She made it known that she’s going to the club and there would get a good bargain for the night. She said, she was in the business to help her parents pay for her school fees and also take care for her siblings.

I became afraid as Randy approached another one standing at the corner of the bar. This is becoming monotonous and people would start suspecting our mission, I said. “No way, in this kind of place you talk to anybody and if she refuses you move to another person. It’s like a market place. They discussed and she came to sit beside him. What would you want to drink? He asked: Water. They started bargaining from five thousand. Randy said he had two thousand. She refused and later agreed for the price. “I’m not using condom, he said. The girl refused and he kept telling her.

“Why are you afraid, do I look like someone who would give you infection”? I take care of myself very well and I see my doctor often. The girl told him, she agreed to take 2,000 because she will pay N10, 000 for her accommodation the next day (Monday) and she has to gather all these money to enable her meet up the rent in the hotel. She stays in the hotel and needed to hustle to make ends meet, to avoid ejection. A couple of minutes, she came back to agree for an intercourse without condom. Randy promised to meet her in the room, as she stepped out, Randy told us: “it’s time to take our leave. This ashewo is a bastard. We have to leave this place fast”.

As we got to the car, we saw two guys beating one of the girls black and blue. Some ladies were standing outside waiting for taxi to take them to club. I was nodding my head, feeling sad that these ladies are s disgrace to womanhood. Randy’s friend said: “This is a tip of the ice berg, lets go to the island and you will agree with me, that ashewo get class”. We left the venue, about 11.pm and driving all through Allen-Opebi, Isaac John, Ogba, bank Anthony way, to Adeniram Ogunsanya, Bode-Thomas in Surulere and I was amazed at the sight of these ladies as they dressed in their Valentine seductive outfits, swinging their waists to the club. We saw girls standing on the road-side you wonder if these girls are really human beings. Randy would make a jest of them, will you be my Val?, he asked, as we drove past Surulere.

I got home exactly 12. Midnight and I kept pondering over what I witnessed. That word ‘Ashewo get class’ kept re-occurring in my mind and that led me to the Island again. I felt I have not got enough materials on these prostitutes. I went to one of the most prestigious five-star hotels on the Island, or should we say one of the best in the country.


That afternoon, I dressed corporate, sat down at the lobby, ruminating over who to approach among the officials at the reception. I met a young man from Akwa-Ibom, and asked him, what it takes if I want to start coming in the evening to relax in the bar.

He smiled, and promised to attend to me. “In this hotel, such things don’t exist any more. They have stopped them. They became nuisance and they don’t have shame. They come to talk to oyibo’s, (white men) and if you don’t listen they leave you and go to another person. At the bar they became so rampant, like 6-8 ladies jumping from one table to the other.”

He continued: They just turn to the man say hello, can you buy me a drink? And the man would say sit down. Most of the time, men don’t refuse. They start asking, what’s your name, what do you do? Where are you from? They come up with conversation and as the conversation goes, they ask, can you buy me a meal and if the man is hungry, he can order for food. As they talk, they start touching their bodies, touch their laps, like getting very familiar as if they’ve known each other for long. You know the thing about alcohol, when the men has taken 2 to 3 bottles, that to them is fun already. If it’s late in the night, they tell the man they can’t go home and they end up in the room.”

“ That’s why they don’t allow single girls into the hotel. When they see you in a funny dressing here they ask you what you want, right from the gate. They used to use the casino as a front, they will peep from the door of the casino to call oyibo’s, but the casino is not existing anymore after the death of it’s owner. You need to see how they behave, the way they dress, dance and you, as a woman will hide your face in shame of womanhood”.
Speaking further, he said: “ They are smart, I mean they are crooks. They know what they want. They make sure they follow the men home. They have different kinds of languages they use, like: do you need a company for the night, or can you buy me a drink? One of the waiters told me that one lady who is into oil, met one young lady in the bar, a very pretty girl. She saw her jumping from one table to the other and the men were telling her to go, they don’t need her.

The hajia felt insulted that this girl is a shame to women. Right there, she gave her 40,000 and her telephone number that she’s going to Abuja, she should see her when she returns and promised her money to start business. The lady was eating buffet, she was seated outside while the buffet was inside. She went inside to collect her food; maybe she started with a starter. She came out but didn’t find the girl, she thought she went to the toilet, apparently, the girl took her diamond ring and left the hotel. They can’t stop stealing. That’s why in this hotel if any man is bringing in a girl, the man and the girl have to sign at the reception, so that they can know who she is, if there is a problem they can trace her.”

I also met with, Sussie, who had worked in this hotel for over 7 years and very familiar with these ‘ladies’ talking about them, she said: “All the money they make, they spend it to look nice. Ashewo can make N20, 000 now and take that money to a boutique and buy a dress without thinking on what to eat. They want to look nice; they are not considerate in their dressing, just to appeal to the men. How much can they make from secular work but when they sleep with a man, they can give them $100, $200, $300 and by the time they see the man two or four times that is something. And some of them they might not make money they start begging for money to go back home.”

According to her, these girls have stories to tell. Some are married. I know few of them that are actually married. They spend most of their time moving from one club to the other. By 8pm they start dressing up, getting ready to go to nightclubs. I know they pay in VI, if not they will not allow them enter. The management is making money out of them indirectly. They go to all these bar with some crazy outfits, you can’t even imagine.”

According to her, the ladies on entering the bar just engage the guys in conversation and from there they start funny acts. “You see them dancing shaking their buttocks and making some kind of irritating moves with half of their boobs outside. Horrible seductive dance steps and if the man is not interested in whatever dance they do they just ignore him and go to the next man. I’m talking about beautiful girls, nice, well figured, you’ll think they are Hollywood star, but they are just professional ashewo. Some of them have big cars; they have jeeps and sports cars. In their profession they make a lot of money, some steal on the men, especially when they know the man is drunk. “The head of security at some of these clubs extorts money from them and sleeps with them so that they can let them in, especially those who don’t have money, the guy is making money from them and also choose them for the white guys.”

Sussie who also have rapport with these girls as regards her status in the hotel some years back, remarked: “Apparently, some of these girls have problems, from home. I took my time to find out what really push them to this, because they are really pretty girls. Some of them that come from Benin, East or they force them to get married at a very tender age, 15-16 years, after having two or three issues, they now discovered that is not the kind of life the want to live. There’s this particular one, she’s already had six children and she’s just 26 years. She now ran to Lagos, she does have anywhere to go, she was scouting at the beach with some girls she met at the beach, you see these girls nicely dressed and if you know where they are living on the beach a small tent with cartoons to cover batcher, no bathroom, no toilet, they use the beach for their convenience and the pay rent to some people there. Everybody have their own thing, some of them that have money, have TV and other electrical gadgets. Now one white guy has helped her get a two-bedroom apartment in VI.”

According to this lady, she came to Lagos and met this girl and they took her to this bar beach tent. “By the time they fed her two or three days, they told her she has to find a way to feed herself, so they showed her the way to prostitution, because she doesn’t have any skill, she can’t work anywhere. That’s how she started going to clubs, following men. I asked about her children and she says she doesn’t want to see them now until she’s stable.

Stupidly for her, after so many years on this kind of lifestyle, she now has her own apartment and brought in her sister. This Chinese man she’s dating, that is helping her, she told the man she doesn’t want to date her anymore but she now brought her sister to start dating the man.
She told me she want her sister to stand on her feet, unfortunately the sister did not date the Chinese man for long because she did not suffer, everything was her beck and call when she came to Lagos unlike her sister that stayed in the beach. She walked out of the relationship and today; she’s now a professional. She’s only 23 years old.”

Interestingly, some of these prostitutes walk the aisle with their white lovers and it was gathered that most of them still cheat on their husbands. “ They get married, that is how bad it is. They still remove their ring, go and cheat and come back. Some of these white guys marry them. Those ones that are even married, when their men traveled as soon as the man stepped to the airport, they remove their rings, they put it in their bags. You ask them why are you doing this? The reply is, more money. The man has established you, gave you a car, made you comfortable, what are you looking for?.

The ones doing this, prostitution is flowing in their blood. It has become part of their lives. Some of them got into prostitution because of problems but by the time they are into it they can’t get out of it. Even those that are very comfortable, get anything they want they still do prostitution, if they have 50, 000 in their bag, they still come out for 5,000. Quite A number of them are married to oyibos but they still do that rubbish, it’s just their lifestyle. They enjoyed sleeping all-day and waking up in the evening to dress out.” Says Amanda, a banker and flat-mate to a prostitute on the island.”

A white guy (Willy) who spoke with Daily Sun narrated the story of his friend’s predicament over a one-night stand. “A friend of mine, a German boy is in trouble right now. He met one Ashawo girl, took her home, slept with her, after realizing he works with the embassy, at his moment now the girl is asking for 5 million. The latest one is one ashawo dating one of the guys from ‘the ash’ (A running club) and she got pregnant and the guy says he’s married, so he can’t keep the pregnancy. She’s requesting for 20million from this white guy. One is threatening my friend now. That one has to leave the country. This guy just slept with her and the next month she came back with a lawyer, requesting for 7 million. Ridiculous money they ask for.”

He also revealed that, this particular friend of his. “ When the guy gets his salary home, the girl will take the salary, give him what she thinks she wants him to have. If you see the girl, she looks like a house girl. One day, he came to the office and he was sleeping, his boss asked him why are you sleeping, and he replied, I’m tired, I’m hungry and his boss asked why haven’t you eaten, he replied, I don’t have money. You know he can’t eat in the cuisine; he will eat in the restaurant. So, the money she gave him is not enough for him to eat in the restaurant and once she collects his salary, she will travel abroad to come back when another months end to collect another salary.

What of the money I paid you, the boss asked, and he replied his wife has collected the money. This guy is white and the so-called wife is from Delta. This guy is married abroad and he came here to marry the girl. Do you think it’s normal? He said he’s tired and one day the girl called him on the phone threatening to kill him. He has lost contact with his children abroad. He has offended his wife; his family just because of this girl and the girl is threatening to kill him that is how bad it was. Go and look for money, go and look for money that is how far she does. It was because of her the man lost his job in his former company. The girl gives him stress all the time.”

“These girls are powerful, they drive exotic jeeps all round Lagos, We have pretty ones yet some are like monkeys if you see the kind of men beside them you wonder and they control their men.” Says sussie, and you ask her, how do they do that, do they have any spiritual backing in doing this business? She smiled and said: I really can’t say but: “One of the girls called me that she knew one baba that says that if she has N50, 000 that he will do something for her that any man that she catches now, things will work out well for her. I saw her few months later and she’s driving a convertible sport car. This is a girl that doesn’t know where her next meal comes from; she has a shop in Lekki now. Later, I now got to know that she met one MD of one of the oil companies, they met at the bar here. I heard she now comes around here to gamble, they said the money you will see in her handbag. This girl is about 26 years old. She lives in Lekki and lots of them have houses in lekki.”

Speaking further, she said: “ A lot of them have cars and some of them say they use charms to extract money from the men. How can you meet a man today, within two months he has already bought you a jeep, rented a three bedroom apartment, furnish it. At least the relationship must grow first.
By the time they are with oyibo for two months, they will build a house, get a car, and you see the white guys following them like zombies. And when you see the girls doing all these, they are tiny little things. You will see a Director of Multi-national company, you will see an MD of Oil company seated and you will see one tiny girl telling him to sit down and stand up.

I know that they are doing it. Because you can’t imagine a girl that cannot even write her own name, if you see the kind of car they ride, the kind of money, the kind of dressing, to talk self, even their pidgin English is not even ok, especially the Benin girls. They say among themselves that they do juju. There was one time I was standing at the balcony of the hotel and I saw a particular girl. She went to chase an Oyibo at the calabash bar and the man said, go; go; go and she left. I was looking down at everything. She went to the toilet and she came back, I could see she has white powder on her face, her face was whiter than the way it was. I noticed she went back to same oyibo, she just smiled and the man offered her seat and they behaved as if they have known each other. I was surprised because the man never wanted her before, she is an intruder, suddenly the man ordered food, ordered drinks at the end of the day she followed him upstairs. Then I know it works.”

Some of them are unlucky, says Amanda. I heard my flat mate one morning discussing about a particular girl that went out with two or three guys the previous night. Two days after the girl came back and narrated her ordeal. According to her, she went to this beautiful house with lots of cars parked when she woke up the following morning, she found herself lying in a graveyard. “ Some of them die mysteriously, they go out and are used for rituals. They see their friend’s heads off, or Bosom  cut off. They fall ill and most of them refuse to go for proper check up on the long run they die a sudden death. The juju in question is to ask for money but I don’t think it’s a measure to know who their potential customers are.”


Posted: at 17-03-2010 05:56 PM (14 years ago) | Addicted Hero
- ibobobelvis at 17-03-2010 07:13 PM (14 years ago)
(m)
brb to read this

Posted: at 17-03-2010 07:13 PM (14 years ago) | Gistmaniac
Reply
- akjasper at 17-03-2010 08:26 PM (14 years ago)
(m)
I was never here !
Posted: at 17-03-2010 08:26 PM (14 years ago) | Hero
Reply
- Miss_precious at 17-03-2010 08:39 PM (14 years ago)
(f)
who go read this rubbish??

Posted: at 17-03-2010 08:39 PM (14 years ago) | Gistmaniac
Reply
- kingmikefidel at 17-03-2010 10:00 PM (14 years ago)
(m)
PROVIDE JOB FOR THEM, THEY WILL LEAVE PROSTITUTION.

Posted: at 17-03-2010 10:00 PM (14 years ago) | Upcoming
Reply
- wunzie at 17-03-2010 10:15 PM (14 years ago)
(f)
Complete disgrace to women folk.  They ought to be rubbed pepper in their p****.

Posted: at 17-03-2010 10:15 PM (14 years ago) | Gistmaniac
Reply
- kingmikefidel at 17-03-2010 10:17 PM (14 years ago)
(m)
Quote from: wunzie on 17-03-2010 10:15 PM
Complete disgrace to women folk.  They ought to be rubbed pepper in their p****.IF U ARE IN THEIR SHOES, WONT YOU DO MORE THAN THEM, WE ARE LEAVING IN A WICKED WORLD

Posted: at 17-03-2010 10:17 PM (14 years ago) | Upcoming
Reply
- wunzie at 17-03-2010 10:33 PM (14 years ago)
(f)
I beg your pardon!!!

Posted: at 17-03-2010 10:33 PM (14 years ago) | Gistmaniac
Reply
- kingmikefidel at 17-03-2010 11:28 PM (14 years ago)
(m)
I PLEAD UR OWN PARDON, DNT CRUCIFY THEM, IS NOT YES, WAT ELSE.WILL THEY TURN TO ROBBERS

Posted: at 17-03-2010 11:28 PM (14 years ago) | Upcoming
Reply
- Bazemaster at 18-03-2010 02:04 AM (14 years ago)
(m)
Nothing good comes from evil

Posted: at 18-03-2010 02:04 AM (14 years ago) | Gistmaniac
Reply
- kingmikefidel at 18-03-2010 02:23 AM (14 years ago)
(m)
ASK THEM, NONE OF THEM WANT TO BE A PROSTITUE, EVEN IF THEY ARE LASCIVIOUS, DOING IT IN A DIFFERENT FORM IS APPRECIATED

Posted: at 18-03-2010 02:23 AM (14 years ago) | Upcoming
Reply
- Tuks at 18-03-2010 02:41 AM (14 years ago)
(m)
Hmmm....Na condition make crayfish bend.
Posted: at 18-03-2010 02:41 AM (14 years ago) | Gistmaniac
Reply
- ajose1 at 18-03-2010 10:51 AM (14 years ago)
(m)
Plz stop all dis supa stories, is just 2 long.................AHBAHHHHHHHHH
Posted: at 18-03-2010 10:51 AM (14 years ago) | Upcoming
Reply
- neossha at 18-03-2010 11:14 AM (14 years ago)
(f)
brb
Posted: at 18-03-2010 11:14 AM (14 years ago) | Gistmaniac
Reply
- jkcm at 18-02-2012 09:50 PM (12 years ago)
(m)
i don try
Posted: at 18-02-2012 09:50 PM (12 years ago) | Newbie
Reply