Twelve underage girls have been rescued from a hotel on Lagos Island after a 16-year-old reported to a police station that she and others were being forced into prostitution.
The commissioner of police, Mr Fatai Tijani, disclosed this during a briefing for journalists at the hotel on Lagos Island.
The operation, led by Tijani resulted in the arrest of a 28-year-old woman, Princess Andrew, who is accused of luring girls aged between 13 and 15 years into commercial sex work under false pretences.
Fatai said the breakthrough came after a Good Samaritan brought Chinasa to the Bode Thomas Police Station in Surulere.
“We busted the prostitution syndicate following a report of a girl who was brought to our station in Bode Thomas, Surulere, where she was working as a prostitute,” he said.
“The girl was brought in by a Good Samaritan who found her lying in a pool of blood, with blood gushing from her nose. She was taken to the station, where she recounted how a woman brought her from Delta State to Lagos with the promise of a catering job.”
Chinasa revealed to the police that she had been learning baking in Delta State after leaving Imo when a woman approached her with a job offer.
“The woman who brought me to Lagos told me she had secured a job for me where I would earn N100,000 monthly and asked me to come along with a friend,” she said.
“The deception only became clear on arrival. “I only realised it was prostitution when she asked me to remove my clothes. She gave me a pair of pants and a singlet and instructed me to lure any man who entered the room.”
When she refused, her trafficker administered Rohypnol, a drug Chinasa described as one that “turns the tongue blue.” “After taking it, I lost consciousness and later found myself taking men into the room,” she said.
Chinasa said she was forced to receive clients from 4:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m., paid between N1,000 and N1,500 per night while her trafficker kept the bulk of the earnings. “I charged between N3,000 and N10,000. Sometimes, four men would sleep with me at the same time, and I received no medical treatment afterward. Some of the men did not use protection, but I could not complain because my madam would beat me if they reported me. Most of the men were traders in the market.”
Fatai confirmed Chinasa had sexual relations with approximately 30 men during her ordeal and sustained injuries to her private parts. After four months, she was transferred to the trafficker’s sister, known as “Sugar,” who continued the abuse. “When I told her I was tired and wanted to return to Delta State, she said I had to work longer to repay my transportation fare. She beat me so badly that I could barely see for a week,” Chinasa said.
She eventually fled after being beaten one night on returning from an overnight client. “I ran away and boarded a vehicle to Costain. A man noticed my condition and asked what had happened. While we were under the bridge, a woman approached me, asked what happened and took me to the police station,” she said.
The woman who originally trafficked Chinasa from Delta State has since been arrested.
Fatai confirmed the rescued girls are between 13 and 15 years old. “The girl informed us that there were about 30 girls involved, but we currently have 12 in our custody. The suspect has allegedly been operating in the area for a long time. Investigations are ongoing and will lead to the prosecution of the principal suspect,” he said.