Private guards employed to secure the premises and property of companies, especially in Lagos, now accommodate prostitutes and their customers in the gatehouses of the companies to make quick money at night, investigations have revealed. A week-long investigation by our correspondent revealed that the night guards were in a joint, money-spinning venture with prostitutes, who wanted to satisfy customers that
could not afford to pay for standard or semi-standard hotels.
According to findings, the commercial sex hawkers pay between N500 and N1,000 per customer to the guards for the temporary use of the rooms. The guard only needs to provide the space, mattress and fan, if available, to earn the money, in addition to his paltry take-home. Many of the skimpily dressed ladies, who are mainly involved in this cheaper sex business, are found lining up some red-light junctions and adjoining streets on Allen Avenue, Ikeja. Some others do this business and get away with it along Obafemi Awolowo Way, Ikeja and Sango Axis of Lagos.
The ladies’ tools are usually wrappers (which they spread on the provided mattress), temporary window blinds and make-up. Aside from the fixed space fee of between N500 and N1,000, some of the commercial sex workers, who spoke to our correspondent, said the proceeds from the sex trade were usually shared between the sex workers and the guards in the ratio, 30:70. Our correspondent approached a lady at a short distance to Soji Adepegba Street, pretending to be a potential customer.
The fair complexioned lady, who identified herself as Linda, agreed to settle for N600, saying, “It is already late and you have to settle the guard.” She said she lived in Ikorodu and needed to keep a distance because she was a married woman. “It is the harship in the country that pushed me into this job. Now, I cannot just quit so easily because my children will suffer,” Linda said. She claimed to be a university graduate, who was laid off from her banking job in 2008.
“I was at the marketing department where targets were set. You needed to meet up. Majority of us had to sleep our ways up. I think that was where the compass of my life changed. I was indirectly into this kind of life because of office pressure. Then, I had my own choice of men, but now, it is a life of anything goes,” she disclosed.
The private guard, after collecting N200 from our correspondent, revealed that, on a good day, he could make up to N4,000 per night. “It depends. We provide security for the girls and they pay us something. If the business booms, especially during the raining season, I could even go home with about N8,000. Occasionally, the police could come to raid us after being tipped, but then we usually settle them. There was a day a man came to tell our Oga that his iphone was stolen when he patronised this place. I had to deny, otherwise, my job would have ended,” he added. At the Ogundana area of Allen,
another sex worker, who identified herself as Ngozi, told The Point’s undercover reporter that she had built a house with what she called hustling. “Go to Agbado Oke Aro, I have eight rooms there. If I get three men for a night, I’m done. I do not charge much…I charge as low as N3000,” she said. She narrated how an armed robber had patronised her and robbed her both of her body and belongings.
“The guy brought out a gun from his bag. He spent an hour on me instead of the usual five minutes. Then he stole all I had and ran away. The security guard also ran away,” she said. A security guard attached to a popular commercial bank in Lagos also revealed that he made about N40,000 a month aside from his N12,000 monthly salary. “On a good day, I share the fun with them. I am a man you know. Some of these ladies are beautiful. If you see them in the afternoon, you could hardly approach them. All wedo here is to pray. We do not have much to fear because we have Mopol guarding the bank. So, the influx here is okay. We share at the end of the day,” he said. When contacted, the Lagos Police image maker, Superintendent Dolapo Badmus, said it was degrading for any woman to take pride in prostitution. She warned that any guard or police officer found to have connived with criminals would be dealt with.
