A hotel in Shimawa (a Lagos-Ogun border community) which uses underage girls as commercial sex workers was uncovered on Wednesday October 23, by detectives attached to the Federal Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) Alagbon in Ikoyi. Two men were arrested alongside 14 girls said to come from Akwa Ibom, Kogi, Enugu and Imo states. The girls who claimed they were lured to the facility by friends from their respective villages are forced to pay their boss N1,000 daily for the accommodation, and they are forced to sleep with a minimum of four men daily at a fee ranging between N500 and N1,000 per client to achieve this. Asides sleeping with clients for money, it was also learnt that the men also slept with them any time they want. Those arrested at the hotel include its owner Gbenga Olayinka, his nephew Adekunle Oshineye, 28, three adult commercial sex workers- Happiness Daniel, Favour Nkume and Glory Ewelike- as well as nine underage girls. The underage girls gave their names as their names as Chisom Onyekwere, Chinonso Okoro, Stella Emmanuel, Gift Wada, Chidinma Emmanuel, Tracy Favour, Success Onu, Comfort Francis, Njoku Divine, Destiny Chibuike and Amanda Chima. Speaking to newsmen on how the facility was uncovered, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Cordelia Nwawe said her boss Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Usman Mani received intelligence about a baby factory in Shimawa on Tuesday night. “The anti-trafficking team immediately moved to the location and throughout the night till about 10am on Wednesday, October 23, we were on operation in the area. We needed to locate that particular baby factory where underage females are kept. “They carried out extensive investigation and found out that 16 females were housed there and engaged as sex workers. “These girls engage men from the underworld and give them information on potential targets. They are used for high menace back in this country. Also note that weapons are usually hidden in places like this and so, the FCIID is out to carry out extensive investigation,” she said. The owner of the facility however denied knowing some of the girls were underage. He also claimed that the girls rented the rooms in the hotel he has owned for two years on their own. “I charge the girls N1,000 daily. I do not control them on their customers and I do not keep their money for them.” “Police have been coming there to search but they have never found anything incriminating. It is not true that criminals come there to hide and it is also not true that the girls keep weapons for criminals. Nothing like that happens there. “My offence is that I kept these girls in my care to use them to work and I am sorry about that. I know it is wrong. I am married with four kids, two girls and two boys.” Oshineye on his own part said he was arrested in the room of one of the girls he claimed was his lover. The builder said he always assisted his uncle Olayinka at the brothel when he is less busy. One of the girls said, “My boyfriend and I planned that I will stop prostitution by December because that is when I would complete my apprenticeship. I sleep with four or five men everyday. It was my friend who came to bring me from the village. I do not enjoy it but I do not have another option,” she said. Okoro said, “I told my mum I was working but I did not tell her the job I was doing. I have been able to send only N7,000 to her since I started this work. I use protection each time to avoid getting infection. One of the arrested girls, Happiness Daniel also told newsmen that she relocated to Dafog hotel 2 years ago after starting off a profession in prostitution many years ago.
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