Rather than tackle the menace of armed robbers in the state which had led to the killing and maiming of innocent Lagosians, including policemen, the rank and file of the Lagos State Police command appear contented with pursuing and arresting ladies dressed in skimpy clothes and commercial sex workers along the streets of Lagos. Just yesterday, three of its men were killed at a branch of a new generation bank by armed robbers who stormed the bank in a commando like operation in broad daylight.

In the past three weeks, at least five policemen have been killed by men of the underworld in different operations in the state.

“But despite all these, the police hierarchy appear to be more concerned about harassing, embarrassing, intimidating ladies dressed in skimpy clothes and arresting ladies suspected to be prostitutes,” said a student of Lagos State University (LASU) Ojo, who was arraigned before an Ikeja magistrate’s court for prostitution, while speaking with P.M.News.

A textile worker at Oshodi who was also docked at the crowded court told P.M.News that she was on her way home when she was arrested at Ikeja by policemen who accused her of being a prostitute.

“They accused me of wearing a mini skirt and a short T-shirt. I told them that I had just closed from work and showed them my identity card but they did not listen to me. They took me to their station where I met some other arrested ladies. They called all of us prostitutes.

Nigerian Women Violated by Nigeran Police

“At night, some of them will come and start touching our breasts and I was not a prostitute, but they wouldn’t listen,” the lady who identified herself as Chinwe Okorie narrated to P.M.News.

A mother of two who gave her name as Mrs. Chiegozie Albert said she was arrested along Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way Ikeja while going to the market.

“Their (Police) vehicle stopped beside me and they pushed me into it. They called me asewo (prostitute) because I was wearing jeans trousers and open top. I told them that I am a housewife but they didn’t listen to me. They took me to their Ikeja station and detained me along with other ladies; it was my husband who learnt of my arrest who came to bail me. He paid N5, 000 before I was released,” she stated.

Two sisters, who claimed that they were just returning from their village said they were arrested at Ikeja and taken to the station and detained before they were taken to the court and charged for disturbing public peace.

Investigations revealed that many innocent Lagosians are being detained by the police in their stations due to their indiscriminate arrest of people on the roads and streets.

Yesterday, the state command paraded more than 97 ladies, it claimed were prostitutes arrested in criminal hideouts in the state.

While parading the suspects, the state police commissioner, Mr. Muhammed Abubakar, said the ladies were arrested in the night at their brothels.

The police boss also paraded a woman identified as Princess Hope who was described as the brain behind the trafficking of young girls between 12-14 years for prostitution in Lagos and neighbouring Republic of Benin.

Princess, it was alleged, brought the young girls from states in the South-South to Lagos and were arrested in different brothels in Agege, Dopemu, Iyana Ipaja, Mushin, Oshodi, Ajegunle, Ojota and Ikotun.

The girls were said to be remitting N1, 000 daily to Princess.

Narrating her experience to P.M.News was a 12-year old girl from Akwa Ibom.

“She brought me from my parents in Akwa-Ibom that I would be trained as an hairdresser and on getting to Lagos she put me in Liberty Hotel in Dopemu where different men, old enough to be my father, made love to me and later she would collect all the money made from the dirty job.

“She even warned me to lie that I was 18 years of age. If I asked her for money she would get angry and sometimes beat me. I came to Lagos with her 7 months ago and you can see how my breasts are getting bigger because of the way they are being fondling by love making customers when my mates are in school.”

Policemen yesterday raided Ikeja and arrested female youths for dressing indecently.

The plain clothes four-man police team, parked a blue Volkswagen bus near the Ikeja bridge across Obafemi Awolowo Way at about 3 p.m., during the raid.

At the time our reporter was at the scene, three indecently dressed ladies had been arrested and taken into the bus while ladies who wore skimpy clothes took to their heels to avoid being arrested.

It is not clear if the law enforcement agents were acting on a recent directive by the new commissioner of police in the state, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar that people found “idling around” be arrested by his men, in order to stem the rising crime wave in the city.

P.M.News gathered that the police had been going about in the last three days arbitrarily arresting people in parts of the city for ridiculous offences.

Investigations revealed that most of those arrested are stranded commuters and commercial sex workers.

The police had allegedly apprehended some ladies in skimpy dresses, young boys wearing earrings and funky hairdos. Some of those arrested were, however, said to have been freed after they greased the policemen’s palms.

In another development two teenagers that were tricked into prostitution by some people called “Madams” are now undergoing intensive rehabilitation with the National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic In Persons and other related matters (NAPTIP) along Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.

They were rescued by the Anti-Human trafficking section of the Lagos State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba Lagos at SAMBOAT Hotel, and STARS Club Hotels, all in Ajegunle.

P.M.News sources said Miss Blessing and Vivian are big time prostitutes and with a very large retinue of other under aged prostitutes and some middlemen who bring in the girls from the villages to work as prostitutes.

It was gathered that sometime in July, Blessing and Vivian allegedly requested for new girls for commercial sex work.

Their middlemen reportedly travelled to villages in Ogoja, Cross River State, to procure the girls.

They sweet talked the two girls they got about a better job with fat pay in the city of Lagos and Ibadan.

Following this, Miss Blessing Peter, 18, and Blessing Effiong jumped at the carrots dangled before them by the middlemen. And in a matter of a day they were all in Lagos by road.

A police source told P.M.News that, “these innocent girls are not familiar with Ajegunle, Lagos and worst still they arrived at night.”

The source added that they were quickly despatched to the two Hotel Madams, Blessing and Vivian.

Their mode of operation is to rent rooms for the girls at N180,000 per annum payable in instalments of about N2,000 per day. If, however, the girls objects to the new fund job, they would be pushed out, the source added.

P.M.News gathered that when the two girls were hired for the job, they rejected it and demanded to be taken back to their villages. But, the middlemen had disappeared into thin air after collecting their commission from the two “Madams”

The two girls had no choice but to settle for the ugly business of prostitution and they were given some stringent conditions by Vivian and Blessing. These conditions are to give ‘customers’ maximum satisfaction, make as much as N3,000 per day so as to enable them pay for their rooms for the day.

Other includes untold slavish treatment such as washing clothes and subjecting them to other menial jobs during the day.

When P.M.News sought the views of Mr. Godwin Emeka Morka at the Lagos Zonal Headquarters of NAPTIP at Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, on the matter, he said, “there is not much to say because the girls have started undergoing rehabilitation.”

The coordinator of the International Press Centre, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, has condemned the arrest of skimpily dressed ladies in the state.

The former chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Lagos Chapter, gave his opinion this morning, during a programme on GOTV.

Arogundade felt it was an encroachment on the right and personal freedom of citizens for them to be arrested by the police.

In an interview with P.M.News the state commissioner of police said raids on criminal hideouts were necessitated by the new strategy of the force to prevent crime rather than acting after crimes had been committed.

He disclosed that his men had been directed to raid criminal hideouts to flush out criminals and put them on the run.

But the events of the last one week in which no fewer than five police have been killed by robbers appear to have put to question the effectiveness of the strategy adopted by the police to reduce crime in the state.