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Two months ago,
Bala Mohammed, minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), gave
all commercial sex workers in Abuja two days to quit or leave the city.
The territory’s Social Development Secretariat which was mandated to
implement the order, has since carried out three raids, but
prostitution remains big business in Abuja.

The FCT
administration has used different tactics to discourage the female sex
workers from plying their trade. It began with persuasion when in June,
the secretary for social development, Blessing Onuh, visited the call
girls at their respective abode to give them the minister’s order. She
told them that the secretariat’s task force would commence arrests and
warned them not to take the matter lightly.

“I’m out to
instruct the girls that the FCT minister has given them 48 hours to
vacate the city and quit the job,” said Mrs. Onuh two months ago. “They
constitute a nuisance in the city and the FCT administration will not
tolerate them.” Afterwards, the secretary donated N50,000 to the girls
after they complained that they had not eaten all day.

Shortly afterwards,
35 offenders were arrested when the task force, made up of officials of
the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), the secretariat and
the police, conducted its first raid. The second raid in July nabbed 50
suspected prostitutes. The most recent raid, held last Wednesday,
netted about 60 sex workers, including a man and woman caught in
compromising situation in a car around midnight.

The suspects were
eventually taken to Wuse Police Station before being charged to a
mobile court where they were tried by the magistrate, Aminu Abdullahi.

Guilty as charged

At the court
session in August, the prosecuting counsel, Eze O. Eze, accused the
girls of soliciting men for commercial purposes. The session was held
under a tree and most of the girls, who had no lawyers representing
them, pleaded guilty to the offence.

The court convicted
those who pleaded guilty and sentenced them to two months imprisonment
or N3000 option of fine. Those who pleaded not guilty were told to
reappear at the court on Friday, 20th August, for hearing and they were
given bail on condition that the bond was signed by a resident of the
FCT. At the end of the court session, bank officials were on hand to
collect the fines from the convicts. The payments were made to the
environmental protection board’s account.

However,
investigations revealed that the group arrested in the first raid in
June were never charged to court. In July, the magistrate had suspended
his judgment against the women, because they were “first offenders.”
Sources at the environmental monitoring unit told NEXT that they were
in a hurry to discharge the girls because the “pressure from outside
was too much. After the July arrest, we received several calls from
high-profile personalities in this country, including National Assembly
men, governors, commissioners from the states and high military
officials, asking us to release the girls,” said one source, who
declined to be named. “We had no choice because we do not want to lose
our jobs.” The officials said they were not even able to keep the girls
for more than one night and had to hold the court session on Saturday
instead of Monday.

“The DPO was not willing to keep them again because of several calls coming to him,” said another source.

We have no jobs

Some of the
suspects who pleaded not guilty insisted that they were not women of
easy virtue, while others claimed they were going about their own
affairs when they were caught. Maureen Opah, a native of Liberia, said
she was about to enter a car when she was arrested.

“I sell chicken on the street and, in fact, I had chicken in my hand when I was arrested,” one of them said.

However, Sade
Ayileka, deputy director of social services with the secretariat,
denied that innocent bystanders were rounded up. She said the team
invaded popular red-light districts in Abuja to apprehend the suspects.

“We consider their
dressing, the location they were in at the time, the time they were
there,” she said. “How can a lady be standing by the roadside at the
dead end of the night, half naked?” Some of the sex workers who spoke
to NEXT after their trial said they were lured into the profession
because they could not get gainful employment.

“I lost my husband
a few years ago and I have three children,” said Chidinma Michael. “My
mother was sick and I spent all I had.” She said she approached a
friend for help. Instead of giving her a loan, her friend showed her
how to make ‘free money.’ “So that was how I started coming out to the
street,” said Ms. Michael. “My children are now at home and have not
eaten since yesterday when they arrested me.” She was eventually given
automatic employment at the social development secretariat to assist in
rehabilitating other sex workers.

Mrs Ayileka accused
the women of laziness. She cited a medical doctor who was arrested some
time ago whose colleagues had to beg for her release because she was
supposed be on call the next day.

“Some of them are
graduates. A lot of them are working-class ladies,” she said. “There
are lots they can do with little money instead of degrading
themselves.” She said the FCT administration would rehabilitate those
who are willing to change. At the skills centre in Lugbe, a suburb of
the city, girls could choose from 10 different skills, including
hairdressing, tailoring and computer studies. Upon completion of the
course Mrs Ayileka said the girls would get equipment relevant to their
fields of training.

However, though many of the girls filled out the application forms, the training is has not commenced.

A wider net

In the meantime
the FCT administration promises the raids will continue, and may be
expanded to the men who patronize the girls.

During one raid,
which lasted from 11 pm on a Friday night to 4 am on Saturday, a
retired director of one of the federal ministries was arrested for
allegedly patronizing one of the girls.

When he was caught,
the embattled man claimed that the lady with whom he was caught was his
daughter; but on getting to Wuse Police Station, he changed his story,
saying that she was his fiancée.

At the station, the
man, who introduced himself as Mr Clem, accused the FCT minister of
going beyond his limits. “When I was a Director, I know Bala. He was a
deputy director. How come now he wants to decide how we live our social
life in the FCT?” said the man. “He should concentrate on the Abuja
Master Plan and forget about the sexual life of the residents.” Mr Clem
was arrested on Gimbiya Street, where he was reportedly caught
negotiating with a prostitute. However, he was eventually discharged.

The FCT administration has said that all that will change soon, as men who patronize prostitutes will also be tried in court.

“Because if men do not patronize them, they will not be there,” said
Mrs. Ayileka. “But we will take it a step at a time; let’s start with
the girls first.”