Over the weekend,
four teenage girls, who were tricked into prostitution in a notorious Calabar
brothel, Vegas Flex - recounted how they sleep with more than 20 men daily and
how their ‘Madam’ collects the money.
The girls, Felicia
Nzuworgar, 17; Patience Williams, 18; Angela Benjamin, 17 and Charity Nkwogor
all from Okun Local Government Area of
Benue state said Abigail Aliyu whom they call “Chair Lady” took them
from their homes in Benue State in January this year on the pretext that she was
taking them to Lagos to work as sales girls in her drinking spot, but ended up
as sex workers in the brothel located at
26 Bedwell Street, Calabar.
One of the
girls, Felicia, told Vanguard: "the
woman told me that she has a beer
parlour in Lagos and wanted me to work as sales girl there, but when we got here she gave me boxer shorts to wear and when I asked her
where the drinking parlour is for me to
start working, she said I should
hustle like other girls by sleeping with
men and when I refused she beat me up.”
The girls, with
different cane marks on their bodies, said the lady beats them to submission,
adding that when they started it was very painful as they were not used to sleeping
with such large number of men daily. Patience recounting her experience said
“Every day we sleep
with over twenty men for N500 each and
because we are young, men do line up to have us. At about 12 midnight,
‘Chair Lady’ will come in and collect the
money, because she counts the condoms she gives to us, if you do
not give her all the money she will beat
you mercilessly.”
The girls said Abigail and the men working for her
normally, searched their room and their
bodies at the close of each day to ensure they had not hidden any money and
beaten if any money was found on them.
They said Abigail on arrival in Calabar collected their phones and did not
allow any of them to step outside the brothel for fear that they might run
away. They said when Angela and Charity
attempted to escape that they were
beaten to a state of unconsciousness by the woman and some of her male friends.
Angela said “ When I
tried running away,
she brought a soldier and a
policeman, who are her boyfriends, and
they beat me up and poured tear gas in my eyes. I later fell sick because of
that beating for many days”.
On why they followed
the woman without letting their parents know, they said once the woman touched
them on the shoulders they became confused and went with her.
“I was walking in our
market in Okun Local Government Area when she greeted me and touched me on the
shoulder and that was how I followed her and we entered vehicle to Enugu to the
house of a juju man, who prepared a medicine (concoction) for us
to drink which she said was to protect
us from sickness, but when we got to
Calabar, she said if we run away the medicine the man gave us will make our
private part to rot,” Charity narrated.
But the Ebonyi
State born, “Chair Lady”, Abigail Aliyu , said her arrest
by operatives of the Anti Human Trafficking
operatives of the Cross River
State Police Command was due to jealousy, adding that she was not the one that
brought the girls to Calabar. Mr John Eluu, Cross River State Police Public
Relations Officer, said the woman will
soon be charged to court after investigation and warned youths to be cautious
and not go with anyone who promises them jobs in Lagos or any other town
without any proof.
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