Lagos sex workers in Mushin,have cried out over fees being paid to Policemen. Some of
the ladies in the illicit profession told a playweve-become-atms-for-police-empire-prostitutes/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Punch correspondent who visited
the area earlier in the week that much of what they earn these days go
to policemen who come in weekly to collect compulsory ‘settlements’. According to a handful that interacted with our correspondent after they
were assured their identities won’t be revealed, each lady pays between
N7000 and N8000 every week to the leader of the hotel where they
‘hustle’. The fee, they revealed, covers rent for the week and ‘tax’ for
the police among other such bills. The pressure of meeting up with such
weekly obligation is taking its toll on many of the prostitutes who
prospect for clients in Empire.One of the ladies whom our correspondent chatted up at
‘White House’,said “Whether
you work in a week or not, you must pay the regular dues to the head of
the hotel,” .
“Each of us who ‘hustle’ here pays N8000 every week to our boss who
then ‘settles’ the police from it after removing money for rent and
other levies. We are over 15 ‘hustling’ here and if you calculate what
the police is making from each of us every week, then you’ll see that
they are the ones benefiting from our ‘hard work’. If we fail to
‘settle’ them, they’ll come in to harass and intimidate us. “For the
eight months that I have worked here, I have seen a lot of things. It is
just as if we have become ATMs for the police; we are like a source of
income or a money pot for them. Just to meet up with their demand and
avoid harassment, most of us now have to work more than we should. It
has not been easy in recent times,” she said. At ‘Cool
Corner’, another hotel in the community where ladies of different ages
and sizes flaunt their ‘assets’ in wait for prospective customers, one
commercial sex worker who told our correspondent that she was 24 years
old and had been servicing ‘clients’ who visit the place since 2012,
revealed that the constant demand by police officers has become a big
source of worry for many of them. According to her, at least each lady
‘hustling’ at the hotel pays around N5000 as ‘settlement’ to law
enforcement officers every week aside from what they churn out for rent.
She told Saturday PUNCH that the situation makes them feel like cash cows to the police. “It is not
as if those of us doing this job are proud of it, no. Many of us are
doing it because we don’t have other means of survival. But to now
imagine that most of what we manage to make these days go into
‘settling’ the police, is really annoying. They don’t come to us
directly, they deal with our boss but then we are the ones suffering the
whole thing. The money these people make from us every week is just too
much,” she said. At the
other hotels in the area our correspondent visited, the feeling was the
same. Many of the prostitutes at three other active spots, ‘Number Six’,
‘Lido Hotel’ and ‘Seventeen Bar’, told Saturday PUNCH that the
situation has piled pressure on a lot of them and eaten deep into the
little funds they usually make at the end of each week. Managers of two
of the hotels who our correspondent came across in the course of the
findings refused to speak on the issue as a result of fear. They also
refused to disclose which station the policemen they pay the weekly
‘royalty’ to come from even though a bar man in one of the hotels
pointed that the officers came from all nearby police stations. Empire
is in between Mushin and Jibowu in Yaba. But apart
from the dilemma now faced by commercial sex workers in this Lagos
neighbourhood, the spate of crime in the area in recent times has
reduced life to a living nightmare for many of its residents, especially
parents with young boys and girls. Some, for fear of the morals of
their children, put them in boarding schools and also give them out to
live with relatives and friends in other parts of the state and country.Mrs. Fatima
Ahmed, a petty trader, told Saturday PUNCH. “I don’t
have money to move out of this area yet but I cannot afford to have my
children grow up here and have their lives destroyed,” She has lived in
Empire for 10 years, witnessing a lot of crimes and moral decadence in
the period. “If you see what some of the youths in the area do with
drugs, alcohol and dangerous weapons, then you won’t want your children
to grow up in such environment if you are a good parent. My children are
in the boarding house and when they vacate they go to my cousin’s place
at Ifako to stay. They only come here to visit me and their father once
in a while,” she said. A commercial motorcyclist, Stephen Okoli, who lives with his three daughters and wife on Oguntokun Street, told Saturday PUNCH
that his girls only return to the area at weekends from his sister’s
place in Ojota where they live and go to school at weekdays. He revealed
that this was the best way he could protect them from being infected
with the immoralities in Empire at the moment. “My wife
and I decided to let them live with my sister at Ojota just to protect
them,” Okoli said. “They are little girls still growing up and we don’t
want them to be corrupted by what people are doing here. Our fear is
that there is no way they would grow up here and won’t be influenced one
way or the other by the lifestyle here. Many of the ladies are
prostitutes while the young men are into drugs and other crimes. I don’t
want such for my children. We want them to have a better life than
ours,” he stated. Spokesperson
for the Lagos State Police Command, Joe Offor, debunked allegations of
extortion and summary raids in Empire as claimed by many of the
commercial sex workers. Offor told Saturday PUNCH that the allegation was a ploy to blackmail officers who were carrying out their lawful duties in the area. “How much
is a sex worker there making that police will go and demand royalty from
them every week? In the first place, is police entitled to royalty?
Some stories are too fantastic to believe and sometimes you don’t even
need to guess too far before dismissing such.“Allegations
like this, as funny as they sound, are not new to the police. The
brothels are seen in most cases as criminal hideouts and if there is any
suspicion of harbouring any criminal in such places; the police have a
right to raid such places regardless of whether prostitutes operate
there or not. In the process of such raids, the prostitutes themselves
could be arrested if they have been found to be working with the wanted
criminals.“Most
times when they make this type of allegation, it’s to blackmail the
police to stop doing their good work. There is no issue of extortion; it
is just a case of blackmail especially since the Command embarked on a
massive onslaught on criminals in Lagos. Criminal hideouts and black
spots are being raided daily to sanitise the state. Our officers are
committed to protecting the safety of lives and property and shall
continue to give their best in the discharge of their duties,” he said.
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