Poverty has pushed several underage girls into prostitution in Bauchi State. DAVID ADENUGA, who visited some of the girls in their brothels, reports on their plight and dangerous lifestyles.
Bayan Gari is a slum behind the historic Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa stadium in the Bauchi metropolis. Inside the slum, poor and naive girls are exposed to dangerous lifestyles from smoking to the use of substances like codeine, Indian hemp, and tramadol.
Aside from commercial sex activities, Bayan Gari is also an abode for gamblers and men of the underworld, the place is patronised by different kinds of men.
The brothels are hidden in such a way that it takes one who is familiar with the environment to find his way through. There, you meet girls of easy virtue, most of whom wear the hijab: a head covering worn in public mostly by women.
With the religious dress, it is easy for them to evade security personnel who raid the slum from time to time. The shy ones among the prostitutes also hide their identity behind the head coverings.
At one of the brothels known as Target, our correspondent had an encounter with one of the underage sex workers; a 16-year-old who identified herself simply as Chonda.
In her small and dingy room, the only furniture noticeable was a weather-beaten mattress and a small wooden stool.
Initially fearing that her room was being invaded by law enforcement agents, the anxious-looking harlot from Kirfi Local Government Area became a bit more relaxed after the reporter’s identity was disclosed by the interpreter that took him (reporter) into her room. Thereafter, she explained why she ventured into prostitution.
Life, according to Chonda, became unbearable for her and her siblings after they lost their father and they had to fend for themselves.
An unidentified man had impregnated her when she was only 15, but because she could not take care of the baby on account of her illicit vocation, the one-year-old boy had to be taken to the Bauchi State Orphans and Vulnerable Children Agency (BASOVCA) for proper care.
She said: “My boyfriend impregnated me and ran away.
“We met here in Target brothel where he used to patronise me before he started telling me that he loved me and wanted marry me. Unfortunately, I fell for his sweet tongue and started sleeping with him unprotected till I realised that I was pregnant.
“In the beginning, he was supportive. But he suddenly changed and stopped picking my calls.
“Untill I was delivered of the baby, he never bothered to check up on me.
“I could not take care of the child alone, so I had to take it to the orphanage home and went back to prostitution.”
Asked how much she makes daily, she said she entertains a maximum of three clients per day, each of whom pays between N2000 and N3000 for short time while an all-night fun attracts N6,000.
Confessing her addiction to substances like marijuana, cigarettes and codeine, Chonda said they make her high and boost her sexual performance to the satisfaction of her clients.
Favour Reuben (16), an indigene of Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area, told our correspondent that her foray into prostitution began after her mother remarried.
Favour became pregnant as a sex worker for an unidentified soldier, her supposed lover. She told the reporter that she stopped sleeping with other clients when her pregnancy was getting to six months to avoid complications. Unfortunately, her baby died hours after she was delivered.
The young girl, the only child from her mother’s first marriage, was left with no choice but to fend for herself, hence her decision to relocate to Bauchi where she stayed with her grandparents. She would later leave her grandparents to start squatting with friends who introduced her to prostitution. She claimed using protection while having sex with ‘customers’, but not with her soldier boyfriend.
She said: “I had to change location. Although I don’t enjoy the work because the street doesn’t pay, I have nothing else to do.
“There was a time I was interested in learning how to make the hair at a salon, but I had no one to help me enroll.”
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