Confession of Nood dancers: How we were arrested and segxwally abused (Page 10)

Saturday Sun gathered that the arrested strippers were detained for eight days before being granted bail by a Lagos State Mobile Court. According to Mr. Tayo Ashagba, Public Relations Officer of the Task Force, “their managers will produce them whenever they are wanted in court.”

However, the officials of the task force, who were sent to rescue the not only exceeded their mandate but also added their personal programme.

They allegedly segxwally abused the strippers and made away with their personal belongings, including cash, handsets, and jewellery. Some of the girls claimed that they were raped.

Narrating their ordeal in the hands of the law enforcement agents, some of the strippers said the rampaging officials took them in turns to satisfy their segxwal appetite.

One of the Nood dancers, who claimed to be a student, said: “They said that what we were doing was bad but what they did to us was worse. When the task force people came to arrest us, some of them behaved like animals and they treated us as if we are not human beings. They were squeezing our buttocks and Bosom s and fingering us (inserting their fingers into their private parts). Then they raped some of us.”

Asked if she was eventually raped, Betty, as she introduced herself, said she was not. She, however, added that her handset and money were stolen.

Hear her: “They took my Samsung E4900 handset and N1, 800 inside my hand bag. They squeezed my buttocks and Bosom s, but I was not raped. I was just lucky. Some other girls were not.”

Another victim, who gave her name as Detra, said she was raped at the Courtyard of Wall Street, the Nood club she operates.

Detra said: “One of the men pulled me into a corner and raped me. He first told me that she would set me free if I agreed. Later he said that if I did not agree he would still have his way and arrest me. He pulled me to a corner and told me to bend down, while he did the doggie style with me. After he had his way, he reneged in his promise to set me free.”

Recalling the events of the night, another stripper, Evelyn, said: “When they came that night, I did not know that they would take us away. We thought that they came to be settled, as usual. You know, some officers normally come, from time to time, to see the manager. Usually, after seeing the manager, the manager will divert some of us to meet the officers.

At such times, we sleep with them. But that night, there was commotion because of the way they entered; they were shouting and rough handling us. They stole a powerful phone given to me by my guy, who returned from the United States not long ago.

“In fact, they searched my hand bag and took my wristwatch, necklace and N4, 000. I did not even see my make-up kit. I don’t know what they want to do with that.”

Asked if she was raped, the dark complexioned Warri girl, with full Bosom s, declared: “I no fit talk again; the one wey I don talk don do. Leave me alone.”

Sources told Saturday Sun that the task force men had a field day sleeping with the girls while they were in detention. Said the source: “After the girls were arrested, the officials took turns to rape them. They promised to assist some of the girls to escape prosecution but they never did. The task force people had a hell of time with the girls.”

Meanwhile, the Nood clubs have gone back to business, with the girls doing their strip shows. The girls said that their arrest would not stop them from engaging in the trade that provides their daily bread. Also, many other clubs are springing up, especially in Ikeja and Apapa areas of Lagos.