Afeez Hanafi They trudged to our correspondent as if they were burdened with heavy loads. From their weary look, one could obviously tell that the teenage schoolgirls had gone through some troubling moments they never envisaged about two weeks ago when they left their hometown in Alaja, an uptown community in Warri, Delta State, for Lagos.
Born in homes where they said their needs could not be met, the girls, aged between 14 and 16, are left to fend for themselves by all possible means. Pronto, they left the village with the mother of three on July 31 brimming with excitement in anticipation of how the supposed new jobs would help drive home their demands while they also relish the peculiar aura of Lagos life.
But they would soon realise that their expectations were a wild goose chase a day after arriving at Ajegunle, a suburb of Lagos. She said we would be doing prostitution. We protested that she did not tell us that before we left the village. She said if she told us, we would not follow her. We told her we could not do it. At that point, Oke said she and her friends became confused and were left with no choice but to muster the courage to raise their school fees by whatever means.
My parents have separated. My mother lives in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Aunty Anita told us that we would be helping her to sell drinks in Lagos. But surprisingly, she used us for prostitution. She sent me to an inn in Ajegunle. I made between N5, and N9, every day, but Aunty Anita collected all the money from me. At times, I would sleep with six men in a day. The man took them to the Layeni Police Station and operatives subsequently arrested Anita.
After we finished discussing, she realised she did not have transport fare to return to Ijora. She started crying. It was in the process that a man saw us and asked us what happened. Gift, 14, embarked on what turned out to be a tortuous adventure in Lagos to relieve her mother of the stress of catering to four children β all alone.
