‘Cheap séx’ hits Abuja villages

Many prostitutes in Abuja have now opted for the city’s satellite villages as a result of ‘low patronage’ in the city. Inside FCT’s investigations in recent months showed that most local brothels in the capital now shuffle between the Municipal and its several satellite towns to conduct their businesses, mainly at night.

The practice, however, is in sharp contrast with the policy of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, which prohibits prostitution in the nation’s capital. Following the directive too, the FCTA, in collaboration with a non-governmental organisation, has empowered many rehabilitated séx workers in the city after they were apprehended by officials and subsequently trained on different small-scale businesses with take-off grants. Inside FCT findings revealed that charges for services in the villages are much cheaper than what obtain in the Municipal.

The charges per ‘service’ range between N500 and N2000 –one service occurs within few minutes to one hour, while a night with a client goes for N3000 to N5000 in the villages. One of the commercial séx workers in Nuwalege, a village along the Airport Road, who refused to give her identity, said she had been into the business for three years.

“I go from the village to the city daily; most night I don’t get as much as I think I should get. Sometimes, I come back home with nothing. I discovered that I rather spend the night in the village; in the village, men look for us all the time. It is only that the charge is very low compared to what we bill customers in the city”.

She stressed there was very low patronage in the villages during the hot season; “because most of the men do not come to us as a result of the heat”. In Kubwa, prostitutes’ porches are found throughout the main markets surrounding buildings. Charges range between N500 to N2000, depending on affordability of the client and ‘size’ of the brothel. Maryland Hotel, among many others, is a popular hotel at Idu, Abuja. Séx workers hang around the hotel to scout for ‘customers’ every night.

In every nook and cranny of the village are hook shops where the brothels operate. Speaking with our reporter, one the prostitutes at Karmo who identified herself as ‘Vic’, said: “There is no good job anywhere. Many of us you see here are educated. I can reliably tell you that very few of us would like to do this type of work.

When we started it, like me for instance who got into it five years ago, we didn’t know we would be this long in the trade. But, after few months of doing the business, you see that nothing happens to you if you can take care of yourself very well. “There are people in our family who are expecting money from us because they think we are in the city and money should be flowing everywhere.

We have siblings in school who keep disturbing us for money. So, by the time we do it three or four times and we get some money; it will be hard for one to stop since we are making a living from it”, Vic added.

Further justifying why she has remained in the business, the young lady said: “For many of us séx workers, we believe it is a trade that has come to stay in the society. Go on the internet, even some adverts using pornography are all over the place. We don’t feel ashamed like before again,” Vic said confidently. Within the capital city, Gimbiya, Area II is considered the nerve centre of prostitution.

This is the area of the city, according to Inside FCT’s finding, where the largest number of séx workers gather at night. Every late evening, there are also clusters of the ‘ladies of the night’ around the popular Transcorp Hilton, Zone 4, among many others.

Charges by these ladies range between N10,000 to N50,000 per night. Bakassi village (Area One – Apo Roundabout) is the headquarters village of prostitution in the Municipal. One thing that distinguishes these ladies from other members of the public is their séxually provocative dress mode and ‘come-hither’ gestures.

They wink their eyes, twist their hips and could easily seduce whoever glances at them. With their attention-grabbing strutting up and down the roads, bars and inns, they are ever ready to feast on any séx-thirsty individual.

What is more interesting about FCT prostitutes is that there are many well-to-do ladies among the lot who only ply their trade in the city; never in the ‘cheap’ villages. This set made fortune from the séx business but are into it because ‘we just love the fun’, according to one of the ladies who confided in our reporters.