It was half past ten on a slightly wet Wednesday night on June 12, 2023, and the poorly lit area in the vicinity of De-Dems Park, a popular entertainment and relaxation spot located on Akowonjo Road in Egbeda, Lagos State, was brimming with nightcrawlers.
An unusually high number of men and women had come there to have some fun. They were out for a good time because Nigeria was celebrating Democracy Day, and it was not out of place to have several programmes lined up by show organisers to commemorate the day and set customers in the right mood.
However, a careful observation of the throng of humanity, many of whom were loitering in adjoining streets, showed that there were women who were not only wearing provocative clothing but also prostituting themselves – they were out in the night to ply their trade.
About three doors away from De-Dems is another “enjoyment spot” called Inferno, which was probably established to rival the former for popularity and patronage.
There were also women of easy virtue in and around Inferno, and some of the customers there, no doubt, enjoy having those call girls at their beck and call.
However, these bevy of opportunistic young women, together with the ones around De-Dems, have a caveat: only men loaded with cash can tickle their fancy.
The Point pretended to be one of the many customers looking for ephemeral pleasures, and it was not difficult to strike up a conversion in that red-light district, especially as money would be an integral part of the discussion.
“How much do you charge?” our correspondent asked a fair complexioned young woman who replied in crispy Pidgin English that Florence was her name.
“How do you want it?” she added, a bit frustrated and miffed that our correspondent did not specify the type of “service” he wanted.
He told her not to worry, but because she thought that he wanted to hit the next “ashewo” up for sexual gratification, she quickly reeled off her charges with a tone of finality.
“Short time is N30, 000 while overnight is N80, 000,” she said, expecting our correspondent to haggle with her about the price.
With her expectations already high, Florence was then asked whether “hook-up” was part of her stock-in-trade, and she answered in the affirmative, having let her guard down a bit.
She also, because our correspondent was “nice” and “respectful”, divulged her reasons for venturing into hook up.
“I do hook up, too. But I do it because I take care of myself. I don’t have anyone else in this world that does anything for me.
“I started prostitution and hook up when I was about 18 or 19 years old. I can come to your place if you choose, but it means that you have to pay more for that kind of service,” Florence said.
When she was told that ritual killing is rampant and that innocent young girls like her were having their vital organs harvested, she replied, “I don’t fear or worry about such things. I fortify myself with prayer.
“And don’t forget that risk is a part of life.”
For “wasting” her time with our questions, Florence took the “consolation money” – as she described it – which was handed to her and the expression on her face, covered in heavy makeup, became animated.
It is disturbing and difficult to fathom why many young women, such as Florence, in their bid to make ends meet, engage in “hook-up”, which entails going out to engage in sexual activity in exchange for money.
Shockingly, many of them are not worried that they could lose their lives in the act. They go wherever they are invited by men they barely know and hope to be safe as long as the “adventure” lasts.
This desire for “safety” during this so-called sex work was evidenced when a television presenter interviewed a hook-up girl during a programme and she said she prostitutes herself in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
She added that hook up is “risky” and expressed her fears about the business and why she keeps returning to it.
She said, “I read a lot about girls whose organs were harvested for ritual purposes, but what can I do?
“Though he doesn’t know that I do this work, but I am the one taking care of my brother who is a student in the University, and so I cannot bid farewell to this line of work – at least not now.
“Luckily, I have not met anybody who tried to kill me. But there was a time I went out and met a crazy and violent man who abused me repeatedly. But I escaped with my life.
“The job is risky; it was God who saved me that day.”
“I started prostitution and hook up when I was about 18 or 19 years old. I can come to your place if you choose, but it means that you have to pay more for that kind of service”
Currently in Nigeria, the hook-up saga involving two besties, Celine Ndudim and Afiba Tandoh, who were both declared missing after their meeting with Andrew Ochekwo in Aba, Abia State, has continued to jolt Nigerians.
The two girls left their base in Port Harcourt for Abia State to meet Celine’s Facebook friend, Ochekwo, in April this year, but have been declared missing after their “host” showed his true colours. He kidnapped the two women in his home.
Ochekwo was later arrested but allegedly killed in police custody.
Many Nigerians have been accusing the two young women of being hook-up girls, but an activist, Harrison Gwamnishu, who said the families of the two women asked him to help in their search, defended them, pointing out that they are not what people are painting them to be.
However, Nigerians who countered Gwamnishu have insisted that an alleged WhatsApp chat between Celine and Ochekwo may have proven that the two women were into hook up as Celine had asked to be paid N1,000,000 by Ochekwo for a two-day visit at his home in Aba.
Afiba’s family have, however, rubbished the said chats, arguing that she is a business owner who would not stoop so low to sleep with a man for money.
The search for the two women is still ongoing, even as the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has ordered a thorough and high-powered investigation.
A legal practitioner, Honesty Eguridu, said that poverty and Nigeria’s deteriorating value system are some of the causes of the spike in hook up.
He said that in the South South and South East, there are now many youths, who say “school is scam,” that are embracing internet fraud, known in the local parlance as Yahoo-Yahoo.
According to him, there are parents who pull their children out of schools and then make payments to fraudsters who teach those children the act of internet fraud.
“So, it also applies to hook up. Young girls who want quick money, a comfortable life without hard work will always dabble in it,” he added.
Eguridu also said that the poor reward system in Nigeria, which denies well-paying jobs to young Nigerians after graduation from university, and confines them to menial jobs, is also responsible for hook up.
“You see, those girls are discouraged by these happenings. They would look at themselves and ask whether they would be the ones who would go through ‘nonsense’ after leaving school.
“There are also some of these girls in the University who already do hook up to meet up with the demands and pressure of the day. They want to buy expensive hair and use the latest iPhone,” he explained.
Although he blamed the government for not helping matters, Eguridu said that the poor value system in Nigeria contributes to parents not teaching their children well at home.
On the other hand, too, he said children themselves no longer depend on their parents, who don’t ask how they cope in school, to send money to them because they know their parents don’t have the means.
“So, even when it is risky to do hook up, these girls will say ‘all die na die,’ and they will also say that it is their destiny if they die doing a ‘good’ thing,” Eguridu concluded.
A social commentator, Alex Nwadike, said that greed, lack of respect for the family institution are responsible for the spike in the business of hook-up.
“Greed, greed, greed and more greed is responsible for hook up. Some of these girls have regular jobs or businesses of their own they can comfortably live on, but they still disguise and go out at night for hook up. It is greed.
“Our pastors and Imams must come in here and do some spiritual cleansing on the thinking faculty of this category of girls. They need it.
“Then, many young girls have no respect for their families. Some of them feed their parents and have thrown respect into the dustbin.
“For me, I will suggest rehab or even medical evaluation for such girls.
“And where that does not work, I will recommend that we keep them in our prayers until when God delivers them.”
