It was a Sunday evening, a supposedly
holy day for Christians. Traditionally,
the major markets are closed in Onitsha,
the commercial capital of Anambra State
in South East Nigeria, and it is either a
visiting day for the city dwellers or time
to attend town union meetings. It is also
a day to unwind at the various drinking
joints.
Time was 6:45pm and this reporter was
at the Lagos Park bypass near the Chisco
Park to investigate an already conceived
script from enquiries about some areas
of the city, inhabited by women of easy
virtue.
Dusk was gradually kissing the day
goodbye and the area was bustling with
a flurry of activities. Commercial cyclists
(Okada) and motorists honked their
horns while music blasted from the loud
speakers of a nearby record store.
Everyone seemed in a hurry either to get
home or to complete other tasks before
nightfall.
Travellers were boarding the night buses
to Lagos even as motor park touts
scouted for more passengers. This
reporter sat on a plastic chair at Mama
Nkechi’s kiosk where the middle-aged
woman sold all kinds of spirits, local
concoctions, kola and gin after getting
her permission under the pretence that I
was waiting for a brother traveling to
Lagos that night.
While fiddling with my phone, the
reporter’s “third” eye was also fixed on
an unfolding scene nearby. Two young
ladies clutching leather handbags and
another black polythene bag popularly
known as ‘walkie-talkie’ suddenly
appeared from the opposite direction,
near the Chisco Park toilet. They briefly
exchanged pleasantries, scanned the
environment and walked towards a lock-
up stall painted in a popular noodles
wrapper’s colour and began fiddling
with their phones. Soon after, other
ladies joined them.
One of them approached the Chisco Park
gate and pretended to hang around
when a man, probably in his late 50s,
emerged from inside and handed her a
big sack tied with a rope. She took the
bag to the lock-up stall and in a jiffy, the
other ladies helped her untie it and they
used it to create an emergency room in
front of the stall. Within seconds, two
young men appeared carrying double
wooden benches, which the ladies
collected and placed inside the make-
shift tent. By this time, their number had
increased.
Another woman in wrapper and blouse
with dark glasses covering her eyes, who
sat beside this reporter at the ogogoro
kiosk, rose from her seat, crossed to the
other side of the road and also joined
them. All the ladies, now over 20, pulled
out the content of their ‘walkie-talkie’
polythene bags and began to UnCloth.
Like a relay race where the athletes wait
for the referee to shout on-your-marks,
they all pulled off the semi-decent clothes
they wore and changed into something
wacky, provocative and all-revealing. In
just two minutes, the jeans trousers,
skirts and tops suddenly disappeared
and bikinis and petty coats took over.
By now, darkness had fully descended
and illumination was only from the head
lamps of passing vehicles and
motorcycles. They lit candle sticks inside
the tent while some among them also lit
cigarette sticks and began to puff away.
As if on cue, young men begin trickling
into the arena and the ‘business’ then
took off for real.
Welcome to Onitsha-Lagos park bypass,
the unofficial headquarters of illicit sex
in Onitsha. Prostitution, they say, is one
of the oldest ‘professions’ in the world. It
takes various forms and methods,
depending on the peculiarities of the
people and the area involved.
Sunday Sun investigation in Onitsha
revealed that illicit sex trade thrives
unabated despite the campaigns against
the spread of Human Immuno-
Deficiency Virus (HIV) and the Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
coupled with all the preaching against
immorality in churches and mosques.
Investigation further revealed that some
of the prostitutes engage in unprotected
sex with clients provided the monetary
exchange is right. This reporter spent
several days combing different parts of
the town between 6pm and midnight
and the discoveries were incredible.
The Onitsha big sex market
Apart from trying to unearth how the
prostitutes start their business every
night, it was discovered that the
prostitution business is a big network at
the Upper Iweka-Lagos Park, comprising
various actors with different roles.
Located conspicuously behind the Upper
Iweka flyover and sandwiched between
Ekeson and Chisco parks is a thriving
prostitution racket. Here a bottle of beer
costs more than a bout of illicit sex. It is
an open market for barrow pushers and
other classes of men, who desire to sleep
with women for a price.
There is no night life in Onitsha owing
to the security situation and peculiarity
of the area. But another sort of night
business thrives, unknown to a large
number of the city dwellers.
The Onitsha-Lagos park wakes up early
as the cock crows for those who want to
take the first buses to their various
destinations. Surprisingly, the area
never goes to sleep. This is not because
trading or business lasts that long but a
different transaction, weird in nature,
replaces the normal businesses of the
day. Prostitution, debauchery and other
crimes take over from 6:45pm to 10pm.
From the entrance of the bypass to the
end connecting the flyover and Port
Harcourt Road, commercial sex workers
in different sizes, colours and shapes
beckon to male passers-by, soliciting
patronage. Dressed in the most
provocative wears, they chorus: “Fine
man, I will do you fine oh”; “Brother,
you will like my service”; as well as
other seductive and amorous clichés.
From the several nights spent in the
area, it was discovered that most shops
and kiosks in that axis were converted to
emergency brothels when the rightful
owners had closed for the day’s business.
Sex takes place on wooden benches
arranged in double rows. Each tent
contains a minimum of three wooden
benches and the male clients have sex
with the prostitutes in turns. Sometimes,
the three benches can be occupied at the
same time while everybody does his own
thing not minding the other person’s
business.
The benches are owned by some men
inside the park, who rent them to the
prostitutes for a fee daily.
Further enquires revealed that the sex
workers have an informal union as any
intending member must first be inducted
before she is allowed to ply her trade in
the area.
Pretending to be a ‘customer’, the
reporter gave one of them, who
identified herself as Jane, a generous tip
and she disclosed that the business was
good and revealed further how they
operate.
“We have our oga (boss) here, who
supervises what we do. He is the one
who supplies us condoms through one of
his friends, who is a medicine dealer at
the Onitsha Bridge Head Market. We also
pay him a certain stipend at the end of
the day. A round of sex here is N300 but
sometimes we reduce the amount if the
person is stingy.”
Sunday Sun also learnt that the
proprietor of the sex business has
private rooms within the park that serve
those who do not want to share the sex
tent with others. A private room for
‘short time’ costs N700.
The scramble for leftovers
The activities of the sex workers assume
a frenzied dimension from 10pm.
During the peak period between 7pm
and 8.30pm, it is not easy to get the
ladies to follow a client home for all-
night service. But it is a different ball
game from 10pm as they become willing
to follow a prospective customer home.
This is when Okada riders and bus
drivers, who sleep in the motor park for
the next day’s onward journey, come to
make their pick for the night.
Onitsha is a transport hub for many
mass transit companies. So, most of the
drivers, who book turns for the
following day’s journey, sleep inside
their vehicles in the parks. But some of
them choose to sleep with female
company.
A driver with one of the thriving
transport companies in the South East,
who craved anonymity, said: “I wish
somebody could record scenes in most of
these motor parks at night on video. The
playback will shock people. Despite
warnings by the management, most of
our drivers bring in prostitutes late in
the night and sleep with them inside
their vehicles. Some of the vehicles
people board in the day are moving
brothels.
“What they do is that they have sex with
these women inside the vehicle by
adjusting the seats to look like beds.
They clean up the seats and discharge
the women by 5am and fix their vehicles
for passengers to board from 6am. Some
of the crashes you see on the road these
days are as a result of the weakness of
the driver from the hangover of illicit
sex the previous night.”
The army barracks sex market
Located inside the Onitsha army
barracks is another sprawling sex
market, popularly known as Sokoto
Road. Although nobody could say how
the name emerged, the area is very
popular among residents of the
cantonment and easily known by all
Okada operators within the barracks.
This is another world of its own.
Parading women of all categories, Sokoto
line is an archetypal Sodom and
Gomorrah. A visit to the area confirms
the saying that some parents at the snap
of their fingers can trace their family
lineage to three generations, yet cannot
trace where their daughter slept last
night.
Sokoto Line is a place where mother and
daughter hawk their bodies for money at
the same time. Consisting of ramshackle
structures built with wooden or zinc
batchers, the inhabitants are resident
prostitutes ready to offer lustful
pleasures to willing customers without
batting an eyelid that the doors are
open.
In this place, it is a free world.
Pornography and sale of alcoholic
beverages and weeds are some of the
accompanying features.
Sex has coded meanings here. One of the
prostitutes, a big dark-skinned lady
sitting in front of her room with an
opening to advertise her well made bed,
asked this reporter: “Brother, you wan
toilet?” meaning, do you want to have
sex?
Another said: “Come and shine your
congo, Nwoke oma (fine man).” Another
wanted to drag the reporter inside her
room just as a young lady was shouting
in Igbo language: “onye ga alam otua ego
o nyem (who will have sex with me and
offer me money?)
You see men streaming in and out of the
rooms while this reporter settled down
to a bottle of drink at one of the joints.
Even pregnant mothers and young girls
between 18 and 20 years are not left out.
Some of the older ladies readily accept
N100 for a round of sex. The ladies
openly flaunt their assets and try to
entice any man passing by.
There is no electricity in the area but the
well-to-do among them use generators
and decorated their rooms with flashy
lights to attract clients while those who
cannot afford the luxury rely on candles
and lanterns.
A conversation with the proprietor of
one of the restaurants known as “Bravo”
revealed that it is a case of if-you-can’t-
beat-them join-them. Bravo said that he
had lived in Sokoto Line for 16 years
when he was ejected from his former
residence inside the barracks because he
couldn’t pay his rent.
“I came here and started this business
and that was when I began to foot my
bills.” Asked whether he was not worried
that his children may be influenced by
the negative lifestyle of the residents, he
quickly retorted: “It is God that trains
children. What of those who came from
noble families but still join cult groups in
school and end up being killed? My
children are well trained, disciplined
and focused. They cannot be influenced
badly,” he said
On what might be responsible for the
upsurge in prostitution in society today,
a clinical psychologist, Dr. Kene
Onyekwelu, attributed it to economic
reasons, unemployment and the drive to
belong by some women.
“Seventy per cent of women who engage
in prostitution do it out of greed. Others
enter as a result of lack of good family
upbringing and inadequate parental
monitoring while some others suffer
from some kind of psychological
disorder,” he said.
A public affairs analyst, Martins
Onuegbu, blamed the high rate of
prostitution in Onitsha on systemic
failure just as he indicted the regulatory
agencies, citizens and the government.
“Look at the society and you will see that
we are actually the architects of our own
problem. The police normally patrol the
streets in the day and at night but
instead of arresting those destroying the
society, they look for their own pockets.
Men are also to be blamed because the
prostitutes would have closed shop a long
time ago if men don’t patronize them.
Most of us sleep with anything on skirt
at the heat of passion without
remembering the consequence.
“Also, most of the girls resort to selling
their bodies because there are no jobs
and the government is not even ready to
employ in the nearest future. They will
tell you that they cannot even pay
minimum wage not to talk of employing
more hands,” Onuegbu stated.
But the Anambra State Commissioner for
Women Affairs and Social Development,
Dr Cordelia Ego Uzoezie, countered those
who blame the government for not doing
enough in empowering women.
Speaking in a telephone interview, the
commissioner admonished those
involved in commercial sex business to
re-examine their lifestyle and avail
themselves the opportunity of various
empowerment programmes provided by
the government.
“Government has been doing a lot in
Anambra State to rehabilitate and
empower women. Those who castigate
the government are either not serious or
are being economical with the truth.
“Every local government council in the
state today has a skill acquisition centre
and it is open for groups and
individuals. How can a healthy woman
take to prostitution on the excuse that
there is no job? Recently, a blind lady
came to my office with several bags she
produced using local beads. We
encouraged her and even enlisted her to
be part of our programmes in the future.
“For the past two years, we have been
encouraging people to access our skills
and rehabilitation centre at Nteje in Oyi
local government but some will choose to
live a loose, carefree lifestyle and turn
around to blame it on government,” she
said.

Source: jingissloaded..co.ke/2015/01/onitsha-sex-marketpregnant-women.html?m=1

yet anambra men dey do as if...na dem get d best women for dis world.

ishh!

nkechi

Imagine pregnant women...............

This world

.They shud give lengthy jail to dis pipu/death penalty to kidnappers,drug transporter,Amu Roba,Rapist or the circle will Continue.

Prostitution is an old time job women including men do, so it's not a thing done in only one region, I have lived in the northern part of Nigeria there is Prostitution, Southern part of Nigeria there is Prostitution and ever other part, surprisingly even in Saudi Arabia, I have friends who returned from there with tales of sexual escapades,

So Op stop that bulshit as if it's from the eastern part alone it is happening, Greed unfortunately if not controlled is almost every woman traits, men inclusive.

Asked whether he was not worried that his children may be influenced by the negative lifestyle of the residents, he quickly retorted: “It is God that trains children. What of those who came from
noble families but still join cult groups in school and end up being killed? My children are well trained, disciplined and focused. They cannot be influenced badly,” he said

This annoyed me the most. Imagine a sane father spilling this from the corners of his mouth.