No fewer than 59 which included 43 girls and 16 men have
been arrested by the Department of State Security (DSS) in Calabar.
Mr Ilupeju Adebayo, Director of DSS in Cross River, who
briefed newsmen on Saturday in Calabarsaid the girls were rounded up at 2:15
a.m Saturday morning at Peace Garden Hotel and Papsi Place along Murtala
Mohammed highway.
Adebayo revealed that there was a cartel responsible for
luring the girls and making them swear oaths of secrecy not to abscond or
divulge information about the business.
“We got an intelligent report and swung into action, we have
been on the matter for months. We discovered that the girls are mostly
underage, mostly 13, 15, and 19 years of age.
“We also know that they were brought in by a cartel, deeply
involved in the business of trafficking and using the girls as commercial s3x
workers.
“The girls then bring returns to them at the beginning or
close of the week depending on their modus operandi.
“We have made some arrests including that of the owner of
“Papsi place” a brothel that houses mostly underage girls who pay him N2,000 on
weekdays and N4,000 at weekends as lodging fee. They operate from the hotel to clubs where we arrested them stark unclad.
“We have contacted the National Agency for the Prohibition
of Trafficking in Persons while investigations are ongoing until all those
involved in the illicit trade are arrested and charged to court,’’ he said.
One of the girls, (name withheld) said that she was brought
to Calabar from Rivers for a sales girl job but she ended up becoming a
commercial s3x worker.
“I was brought to Calabar through a friend who told me that
I will be given a job as a sales girl. She took me to a lady known as Aunty
Favour.
“They took me to a
brothel at Atamu Street, Calabar South, from where I used to attend night
clubs.
“I ran away and then they traced me and brought me back,
they wanted to force me to take an oath but I objected and absconded again to
meet my friend whom I came with to Calabar then.
“Aunty Favour came there with the boyfriend and some cult
boys and beat me up. And told me that if I run they will kill me or I will die.
“So, I usually go to her house to make returns to her every
week but I am not happy with the kind of work I am doing; it was never my
intentions to do this, because my friend did not tell me that it was this kind
of job,’’ she said.
One of the suspects, Mr Edem John, who was among the 16 men
in custody and owner of Papsi’s Place, denied any wrongdoing, claiming that he
has been warning the underage girls not to come to his place for commercial s3x.
He, however, added that because of the trying times, he had
no choice but to do his business.
“I have been doing this business for about two years; they
pay me N2,000 for the accommodation where they have s3x with men.
“Although I have been warning the underage ones to stay away
from my place but they still come back, and I need to do my business because I
have a family to feed,’’ he said.
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