Teenagers rescued from prostitution.

Teenagers recount how they were forced into prostitution by ‘chair-lady’

Four teenage girls identified as 17-year-old Felicia Nzuworgar, 18-year-old Patience Williams, 17-year-old Angela Benjamin and Charity Nkwogor, who hail from the Okun local government area of Benue state, recounted how they were lured into prostitution in Calabar.

The girls said they were taken from their community in January by one Abigail Aliyu aka ‘chair lady’, with promises of hiring them as waitresses in her drinking joint in Lagos. Chair-lady had ended up turning them to sex-workers and taking them to a brothel located at 26 Bedwell street in Calabar, Cross River state.

The girls also recounted how they were made to sleep with over 20 men daily, and how Chair-lady collected all the money they made daily.

17-year-old Felicia had this to say:

“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.”

18-year-old Patience recounting how difficult it was for them initially, had this to say:

“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.”

Each of the girls recounted the brutality meted out on them by Chair-lady, who they said beat them to submission. They each have different cane marks on their bodies, gotten from their early days when they hadn’t gotten used to sleeping with such

The girls said their bodies and rooms were searched thoroughly at the end of everyday by Chair-lady and the men who worked for her, to ensure they didn’t keep any money hidden. They also said she took their phones away once they got to Calabar and refused to let them step outside of the brothel, to ensure they didn’t run away.

17-year-old Angela who once risked it all and attempted to run away, recalled how she was beaten after she was found. Here’s what she had to say:

“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.

Charity said they didn’t get the chance to tell their parents where they were going to because they had been under a spell. Here’s what she had to say:

“ 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.”

Following her arrest by opratives of the anti-human trafficking operatives of the Cross River state police command, Ebonyi state born Abigail “Chair-lady” Aliyu, said she was arrested as a result of jealousy, adding that the she wasn’t responsible for the girls coming to Calabar.

Cross River state police public relations officer Mr John Eluu, said Abigail will be charged to court as soon as investigations are done, he also warned youths to carefully avoid anyone who promises them ‘fictitious’ jobs without any proof.