Lagos sex workers say policemen treat them like their ATMs

When Punch Newspaper investigative team visited the sex workers at Empire, a cluster of streets in the heart of Mushin, they claimed that much of what they earn these days go to policemen who come in weekly to collect compulsory ‘settlements.

Empire sex workers charged one of the cheapest rates in Lagos. They charge as low as N500 for a round of sex in some cases. According to them, whether you work in a week or not, each lady pays between N7000 and N8000 every week to the leader of the hotel where they ‘hustle'.

The fee, they revealed, covers rent for the week and ‘tax’ for the police among other bills. The pressure of meeting up with such weekly obligation is taking its toll on many of the prostitutes.

One of them said: “We are over 15 ‘hustling’ here and if you calculate what the police is making from each of us every week, then you’ll see that they are the ones benefiting from our ‘hard work’. If we fail to ‘settle’ them, they’ll come in to harass and intimidate us.

It is just as if we have become ATMs for the police. Just to meet up with their demand and avoid harassment, most of us now have to work more than we should. It has not been easy in recent times.