COLLAPSE OF CEASEFIRE: MEND issues two-week ultimatum

SUNDAY VANGUARD, JULY 10, 2016, PAGE 17
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SORDID TALES OF FOUR BENUE SCHOOL GIRLS IN CALABAR
‘For six months, ‘Chairlady’
forced us to have sex
with 20 men daily’
•Say y they were tak
aken from their homes after being hypnotised
By Emmanuel Unah
Four schoolgirls have narrated
how they were recruited into
prostitution by a suspected human
trafficker, Abigail Nweke Alo, in an alleged
brothel located in Calabar business area.
Felicia Nzuworgar, 17, Patience Williams,
18, Angela Benjamin, 17 and Charity
Nkwogor, all from Okun and Vandeikya
Local Government Areas of Benue State,
said Abigail, who they called ‘Chairlady’,
took them from their homes, in January,
under the pretense that she was taking them
to Lagos where she had a drinking spot to
work as sales girls but ended up as sex
workers in Calabar.
“I was selling oranges in our market in
Okun when she tapped me on the shoulder
and I turned thinking she wanted to buy
oranges but she told me she had a business
in Lagos and wanted me to follow her. I did
not know what came over me. I just
followed her without even telling my parents
and friends where I was going”, Felicia told
Sunday Vanguard.
Patience, a senior secondary school 2
Student in Vandiekya, on her part, narrated
that she was plating a friend’s hair in front
of her grandmother’s house where she lived
when Mike, a commercial motorcycle rider,
who lived in her neighbourhood, came to
inform her that a lady was looking for
someone to work in a beer parlour in Lagos,
and wanted to know if she would like to go
with her.
“I told Mike that I was still in school and
could not go with the lady and that she
should look for someone else. But instead of
looking for somebody else, Mike went and
brought the lady and when she looked into
my eyes, I simply went inside and packed
my clothes and followed her without
waiting for my grandmother who went out
to come back”, she stated.
Everyday we slept with an
average of twenty men for
N500.00 each and, because
we were young and new, men
would line up and wait for us
till about 12 midnight when
the hotel closes and then
‘Chairlady’ will come in and
collect the money
Recounting her own experience, Angela
said she was on her way from school when
the lady met her and told her she wanted to
take her to school in Lagos and also assist
her (Abigail) in her beer parlour business
and she went with her into the bus where
other girls were waiting.
They girls, on their way from Benue to
‘Lagos’, stopped in Enugu where they spent
the night in the house of a man who,
according to her, had seven wives. The man
was said to have given them concoction to
drink after which they were warned that if
they tried to run away, their private parts
would rot and they would die.
“The man took us into his medicine hut
and gave us the concoction to drink and,
when we refused to drink, he beat us. He
told us that if we went out without drinking,
we will die. After we drank, he said that if
we ran away from ‘Chairlady’, our private
parts would rot and we will die”, Felicia
said.
According to her, after the encounter with
the man, the next day, they continued their
journey. “We got to Calabar in the night and
when I asked ‘Chairlady’ if this was Lagos,
she said yes”.
The next day, at the alleged brothel where
they were lodged, the girls said Abigail gave
them boxer shorts to wear and begin to
‘hustle’ for men like other girls in the place
were doing. When they refused, ‘Chairlady’
descended on them and beat them
mercilessly.
“We arrived Calabar in the night and, the
next morning, she collected our phones and
brought boxer shorts to us that we should
wear and, when we asked her where the
drinking parlour was so that we could start
work, she said we should hustle like other
girls were doing by sleeping with men and,
when we refused, she beat us up
mercilessly”, Patience narrated.
According to her, nobody came to their
rescue as all the prostitutes in the brothel
were afraid of Abigail because she was their
head. “Everybody in the hotel was afraid of
her because she was their boss and, if
anyone dared to challenge her, she will send
the person out of the place”, she said.
They had to agree to begin sleeping with
men after some days as ‘Chairlady’
allegedly went on beating them ceaselessly
and denying them of food.
“You can see marks on our bodies because
of the beating we got”, Angela said. They
recounted how each of them slept with an
average of twenty men every day while
Abigail collected the money they made,
leaving them with N500.00 as feeding
money.
The girls explained that when they started
the commercial sex work, it was very painful
as they were not used to sleeping with such
a large number of men daily.
“ It was very painful when we started.
Everyday we slept with an average of
twenty men for N500.00 each and, because
we were young and new, men would line up
and wait for us till about 12 midnight when
•Suspected human
trafficker... Iam innocent
the hotel closes and then ‘Chairlady’ will
come in and collect the money and, since
she used to count the condoms she was
giving us, if you did not give her all the
money, she will beat you mercilessly”,
Patience said.
The girls said Abigail had male aides
who searched their rooms and their bodies
at the close of work each day to ensure
they had not hidden any money and, if any
money was found with them, they would be
beaten up.
They said Abigail, on arrival in Calabar,
having collected their phones, did not allow
any of them to step outside the alleged
brothel for fear that they might run away
and that, two of them, Angela and Charity,
who attempted to escape, were severely
beaten by the woman and her male friends.
“ When I tried to run away, she brought a
soldier and a policeman who were her
friends who beat me up and poured tear gas
in my eyes and, because of that, I became
very sick and could not stand up for many
days”, Angela recounted.
On why they followed the woman without
letting their parents know even as they were
still in secondary school , the girls said once
the woman touched them on the shoulder,
they became hypnotised and went with her.
Abigail, who claimed to be from Ebonyi
State, said her arrest by operatives from
Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of Cross River
State Police Command was due to jealously.
She said she was not the one who brought
the girls to Calabar.
Mr John Eluu, Cross River State Police
Command Public Relations Officer, said the
suspected human trafficker will face the law
and warned young girls to be cautious of
promises of jobs in Lagos or any other town
by human traffickers without proof.
‘Chairlady’ has since been charged to
court for alleged kidnapping and engaging
in prostitution.