The story of how women are making millions out of trafficking girl child in Abuja weakens the mind when exposed to the wicked act of the actors behind the act. Trafficked from different parts of Nigeria to Abuja; the capital city of Nigeria, the “madams” who are behind the act smile at the bank while trafficked girl child is left without hope for the future.
Liberty Oseni, a MAWA Foundation staff, investigated how under-aged girls are trafficked within Abuja and are used as slaves and sex machines in return for money to women who use them as a business for income generation.
Oseni in the course of the investigation interviewed Children who were trafficked and are being used as a business in Abuja. He also interviewed some of the madams who run the trafficking cartel.
In Eddy Guest Inn, located at Sharp Corner Mararaba area of Nasarawa state, about 10 kilometres to Abuja, Nigeria capital city, a huge number of girls between the ages of 14 and 16 are recruited for prostitution.
The girls are given rooms where they meet their male customers. They are made to pay the sum of N2000 daily, a fee for using the room. The money is paid to the hotel manager. In some instances, they will be grouped three in a room while anyone that gets a male customer is allowed to use the room and others stand outside in search of a customer that will patronize them.
One of the girls who gave her name as Lynda Ameh, and said she is 16 years of age, told our reporter that she comes from Otukpo in Benue State, north-central Nigeria.
Narrating her experience, the 16-year-old Lynda said she sleeps with an average of 15 men a day. On ordinary days like Monday to Thursday, there is no market, I sleep with seven men, but Friday which is the weekend, I sleep with about 10 men, but on Sunday which is the hit day, I sleep with about 15 men, she told our reporter”.
Asked how much she makes a day, she said, it depends on the customer; sometimes I make N10k and sometimes N25k.
I have to work so hard so I can settle my madam she said, my madam collects 40%, I take 50% and the hotel takes 10% of the money I make every day.
Ameh who refused to mention her madam name because she is under oath not to disclose her identity said she was brought from Makurdi by her aunt with the promise of getting her job in a federal secretariat as secretary.
She disclosed that she was handed over to her madam by her aunt while she was among the 13 girls working under her madam and makes a refund of N40k every week to her.
“No you cannot just come here and do prostitution, we have a union, we are highly connected, and you need to be in the league to make it,” she said.
“Our madam is very wealthy and has girls all over Abuja, I hope to be like her in the future, she is a big woman” she added.
Asked what kind of work her madam does, she said, nothing, she sits at home but has women working and bringing money for her.
Another girl who identified her name as Chichi and said she is 15 years of age, narrated how she dropped out of secondary school because of her parents’ inability to train her, told our reporter she was brought to Abuja by her aunt in January 2017.
Narrating her experience, she said she was introduced into prostitution by her aunt who handed her to Miss. Jessy a high-class prostitute from Edo state.
“I do not have other work doing, we come here every day to make leaving, I have to pay my aunt, madam, and settle the hotel” she added.
The business has a high network of connections, those who have risen to the rank of Madam are making huge money, and you can imagine every girl here taking N30k to their madam every week” she told our reporter.
The hotel manager, who gave his name as “Alias Clear Road” confirming the illicit activities in the hotel, told our reporter that the girls are on the premises for business.
“They came here on their own, we are just providing a platform for them to do their business and succeed, they like what they are doing, I also pay to have sex with them, here nothing is free, shine your eyes,” he said.
Chidi Nkemakolam, a 10 old boy from Ebonyi state, told our reporter at a mechanic workshop in Mpape area of Abuja that he was brought to Abuja by Mrs. Comfort Ada with the sole aim of coming to go to school. He narrated how he had in the last five years, engaged in street hawking, and remits money he makes to Madam Joy Agu, who he said; is his madam.
Blessing Chika, who says she comes from Enugu state, and lives with her aunt at the Mpape area of Abuja, narrated how her aunt’s husband Mr. Isaac Abah, has sexually abused her for over seven years. She said her aunt told her she bought her as a sex slave to ensure she sexually satisfies her husband at all times.
Madam Nonso, posing with a stick of cigarette, told our reporter at a federal housing estate in the Lugbe area of Abuja that she has over 38 underaged girls working for her.
She disclosed the girls were brought from Enugu, Ebonyi, Benue, and Ogoja.
She narrated how the girls are through the ethics of prostitution to ensure they are professionals and stay safe at their work.
Narrating how the business operates, Nosnso said, there is a union headed by a network of senior madams who have at least 30 to 40 girls under their control.
She disclosed that the Madams are so powerful that even the police and politicians respect and worship them.
Nonso added the business is of levels, some madams specialize in getting under-aged girls to a night club to dance naked and servicemen who need them, others get girls for women who are lesbians while others are making girls available for men who need them anytime and anywhere.
“The business is lucrative I can tell you” if you have smart girls, you make an average of N2 million a month,” she said.
Asked how they get the under-aged girls, she said, the girls are brought from states by their aunts while they are paid for bringing them.
Madam Chisom, at the Dutse Bokuma area in Bwari area council, runs a cartel of child prostitution, the girls are kept in a building that no one can suspects prostitutes live there. They come out at night and stay indoors during the day.
The girls some of them age 14 and 16 spoke to our reporter on their ugly experiences working as prostitutes and remitting money to madam. One of them who identified her name as Betty, who said she comes from Benue state and Tiv by tribe.
She narrated how they are forced into prostitution using the Sokale garden as a hit point in search of customers.
Asked how she joined the profession, she said she was brought to Abuja by her aunt who is married to a civil servant and lives in the Gwarimpa area of Abuja.
Apart from me, there are about seven other girls I know who come from my village who are forced into prostitution. Although she feels very angry about her engagement in the act, she said she cannot leave until she makes the sum of N1.8 million being a payment due to her madam. She disclosed that all of them who are about 200 in number were administered on oath not to leave until they pay the agreed amount back to their madam.
Betty told our reporter how they spend the night at Sokale garden, a place men come to drink waiting to be patronized by male customers.
Mr. Isreal, who lives at Dutse Bokuma, told this newspaper that a good number of small girls are brought to the place virtually every month, he pointed out that because the police are arresting them, they do not parade at Sokale garden anymore, but stay in an apartment rented for them by their madam for male customers to come have sex and pay them.
A close friend of Madam Chisom who did not want her name mentioned disclosed that Chisom makes a huge amount of money from trafficking girls both in Nigeria and other African countries.
A senior police officer who spoke to our reporter and did not want his name mentioned, recounted how powerful the woman is, he said police have arrested her severally, but she bribes her way out.
Mr. Paul who claims to be a personal assistant to Chisom, speaking to MAWA, denied her boss’s involvement in trafficking girls.
Although he admitted there is a huge number of girls working for her madam, he could not say exactly what kind of job they do for her madam but said they do not engage in prostitution.
He dismissed the allegation as a campaign by haters targeted at dragging her madam image to the mud.