We sleep with men, ‘Chair Lady’ collects the money — Calabar teenage sex workers

CALABAR— FOUR Teenage
girls, who were tricked into prostitution in a notorious Calabar 
brothel, Vegas Flex,  weekend recounted   how they   sleep  with more
than 20 men daily and how their ‘Madam’ collects the money.


The girls, Felicia Nzuworgar, 17; Patience Williams, 18; Angela
Benjamin, 17 and Charity Nkwogor all from Okun Local Government Area of
 Benue state said Abigail Aliyu whom they call “Chair Lady” took them
from their homes in  Benue State in  January this year on the pretext
that she was taking them to Lagos to work as sales girls in her drinking
 spot, but ended up as sex workers in the  brothel located at 26 Bedwell
 Street,  Calabar.

One of the girls,  Felicia, told Vanguard, “the woman  told me that she
has a beer parlour in Lagos and wanted me to work as sales girl there, 
but when we got here she gave me  boxer shorts to wear and when I asked
her where the drinking parlour is for me to  start working, she said  I
should hustle like other girls  by sleeping with men and when I refused
she beat me up.”

The girls, with different cane marks on their bodies, said the lady beat
 them to submission, adding that when they started it was very painful
as they were not used to sleeping with such large number of men daily.

Patience recounting her experience said “Every day we sleep with over
twenty men for N500.00 each and  because we are young, men do line up to
 have us. At about 12 midnight, ‘Chair Lady’ will  come in and collect
the money, because she  counts  the condoms she gives to us, if you do
not  give her all the money she will beat you mercilessly.”
File: arrested suspects
File: arrested suspects

The girls  said Abigail  and the men working for her normally, searched
their  room and their bodies  at the  close of each day  to ensure they
had not hidden any money and beaten  if any money was found on them.

They said Abigail on arrival in Calabar collected their phones and did
not allow any of them to step outside the brothel for fear that they
might run away. They said when   Angela and Charity attempted  to escape
 that they were beaten to a state of unconsciousness by the woman and
some of her male friends.

Angela said “ When I tried  running  away,  she brought a soldier  and a
 policeman, who are her boyfriends,  and they beat me up and poured tear
 gas in my eyes. I later fell sick because of that beating for many
days”.

On why they followed the woman without letting their parents know, they
said once the woman touched them on the shoulders they became confused
and went with her.

“ I was walking in our market in Okun Local Government Area when she
greeted me and touched me on the shoulder and that was how I followed
her and we entered vehicle to Enugu to the house of a juju man, who
prepared a medicine (concoction)  for  us to drink which she said  was
to protect us from sickness, but  when we got to Calabar, she said if we
 run away the medicine the man gave us will make our private part  to
rot,” Charity narrated.

But the Ebonyi State  born,  “Chair Lady” , Abigail Aliyu , said her
arrest by operatives of the Anti  Human Trafficking  operatives  of the
Cross River State Police Command was due to jealousy, adding that she
was not the one that brought the girls to Calabar.

Mr John Eluu, Cross River State Police Public Relations Officer,  said
the woman will soon be charged to court after investigation and warned
youths to be cautious and not go with anyone who promises them jobs in
Lagos or any other town without any proof.