‘They beat us if we don’t meet target’, girls rescued from Anambra brothel narrate ordeal

Two underaged girls and 18 others who were rescued from of a hotel in Oba community of Anambra State have narrated how they were deceived into prostitution, and made to pay daily targets by sleeping with different men..

The girls were rescued by officials of the Anambra State Government and operatives of the state Police command during a raid of a hotel in Oba community, Idemili South Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.

According to reports, the raid was executed following a confidential information from an alleged whistleblower after continuous suspicious activities were noticed around the hotel vicinity.

The underage girls, however, have been taken to the hospital for medical examination and possible treatment courtesy of the state’s Women and Social Welfare ministry.

The state Commissioner for the ministry, Ify Obinabo, on Wednesday, extolled the efforst of the security operatives in rescuing the girls.

READ ALSO: Anambra govt sets up special squad to deal with touts, hooliganism

Obinabo said: “Before embarking on this raid, the investigation was carried out by the ministry, and it was discovered that the management of the hotel by the name ‘Ten Top’, Oba traffics girls from all parts of the country for prostitution purposes.

“The state government is committed to ending all forms of child kidnapping, trafficking and sex slavery in the state and we urge ndị Anambra to always report any suspicious activity around their vicinity for prompt response and action.”

Some of the rescued girls are between the ages of 16 and 24 years.

When they spoke to Journalists claimed to have been taken to the hotel either by friends or relatives based on securing a hotel job for them while, on the contrary, they were trafficked.

They mentioned that the person who brought them to the brothel usually seized their phones and other belongings before handing them over to another woman who told them that they would only be released if they brought a certain amount of money to her or served her for one year

According to them, they made between N4,000 to N10,000 daily and N15,000 to N30,000 during weekends.

One of them, identified as Ebere, said: “We have different ‘madams’ at the hotel, and the money we made is taken away by our different direct ‘madams’ while the owner of the hotel, in turn, comes to collect the money.

“It is from the money we make that we pay the rent to the owner everyday, we pay the sum of N3,500 as rent on a daily basis from the proceeds of the prostitution business.

“We were given N500 every morning for feeding for the whole day and that the food is brought to us by the security guard positioned at different areas of the hotel.”

The girls also revealed that they sleep with about 10 men a day in order to meet up with the target given to them, and if they don’t meet up with the target, they risk being beaten mercilessly by their madam.

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