The world of Abuja online prostitutes

Written by Tosin Omoniyi

Chased off the streets of the
Federal Capital Territory by
government officials, the
Abuja prostitutes have found
a new platform to operate:
the internet
Puffing hard on a slowly dying cigarette
even in the hot afternoon seemed to be a
faultless action to her. Even with the heavy
dose of mascara on her face, the
youthfulness of the persona could not be
hidden, no matter how hard she tried. But
evident lines of stress, perhaps engendered
by her chosen profession, crisscrossed her
light skinned face. Despite the sordidness
of the discussion she seemed to be at
peace with herself and with the world
around her. ‘Cindy’ (not real name) is an
Abuja sex worker who was chased off the
streets of the capital city by furious city
officials; but she has now found a new
means of plying her trade away from the
prying eyes of the world. To people like
Cindy the internet has offered ample
succour for the teeming displaced sex
workers in the capital city, at least for
those who are enlightened enough to know
how to use this important resource.
Nowadays she has become inseparable
from two gadgets which follow her
everywhere she steps into. “Whether am at
home or outside the confines of my house,
my BlackBerry phone and laptop always go
along with me,” she says. “I can’t imagine
myself without these two items. At time I
even forget to take my handbag along but
these: no.”
She displays a worn out BB phone and a
mini laptop with uncommon flourish. But
what does she do with these? With a
twinkle in her eyes she looks
conspiratorially at the reporter before she
goes on.
“These are my mobile offices. With these
two I have been able to make more money
than I would have made walking the
streets,” she says. “It is safer and more
reliable. It does not cost me much to
operate, but the money I make at the end is
enough to make up for what I have lost
since being chased off the streets by Bala
Mohammed.”
As she talks heatedly, her phone beeps
intermittently. Subsequently, she picks up
calls coming in. Going by the haggling
going on repeatedly between her and the
unknown callers one could have been led
to think that she was conducting business
transactions with partners. But her
business is of a different kind.
She appears to be in a good mood to talk
today as she goes into the sordid details of
a new mode of operation of prostitutes,
months after they were cleared off the
streets of the city.
“I am a member of many of these social
networking sites,” she volunteers. “What
most of us do is to subscribe to these sites
as members. We put up a profile picture
that is sexy and in a matter of days we get
men in the city and other parts of the
country making overtures to us. What many
of them want is sex although they won’t tell
you immediately. After a few interactions
we are able to strike a ‘deal’ with them.
“We either set up a meeting at a nearby
hotel depending on the money such a
person is willing to pay or if you feel
comfortable about it, you can invite the
person to your place, but at a much higher
rate,” she adds.
With a computer and an internet connected
phone, many sex workers in Abuja have
started optimising the benefits of the
online world to practise their illicit trade.
What they simply do is to subscribe to any
of the tens of dating and social networking
sites, most of which are free to join
(although a few charge the subscriber via
any mobile network platform). They then
put up pictures, in most cases showing
sensitive parts of their bodies, on their
profile pages in order to lure male
subscribers. A simple flirtatious comment
from either of the subscribers, or an
exchange of phone numbers, could be a
precursor to a deeper commitment. So
while a few sex workers dart in and out of
shadows on major streets of the capital city
in a dual attempt to patronise and elude
the tentacles of city officials, internet
prostitution appears to be slowly gaining
grounds amongst them.
Some of the sites that now attract many of
these women and men interested in short
‘flings’ include zorpia, badoo, netlog, hi5,
meelovia, naijapals and a host of others
springing up daily. They do not inform the
operators/moderators of the sites of the
illicit side of their transaction, and as such
the operators may be oblivious of it. Mails
(requesting for the sites’ operators’
reactions) sent to the feedback portals of
most of the websites were not responded
to as at press time. However, most
moderators of these sites espouse the
virtues of decency and honesty. Badoo and
Zorpia, for instance, have clear warnings
against engaging in indecency on their
sites. Naijapals too has a similar warning.
“You must use the service in a manner
consistent with any and all applicable laws
and regulations,” it warns. Facebook on its
own has a ‘report link’ where such abuses
could be placed by concerned users.
None of these prevent the Abuja ‘comfort
ladies’ from having their field days. A
regular internet user, Nonso Diobi (not real
name), recalls his experience on one of the
social networking sites he logged on
recently as a member. “I was attracted to
the profile picture of a particular lady and
decided to become friends with her. We
had barely exchanged pleasantries when
she shocked me,” he says.
“She asked me if I wanted to do ‘short time’
which she said was N10,000 only or TDB
(till day break) which she said was
N20,000. Not being a novice in these things
I knew what she meant as soliciting for
sexual partners. It was when I interacted
with other friends of mine that I learnt that
it was now a normal stuff on internet
today,” he says.
Another has this humorous contribution: “I
met a girl on gistpage.com. After we
became friends I invited her out. But the
next thing she sent to me was a bill asking
me how much I am willing to pay to have
sex with her…”
Zakari Aliyu, media spokesperson of the FCT
Social Development Secretariat, empowered
to remove sex workers off the streets, says
the unit is not aware of the current trend.
He, however, emphasises the authorities’
readiness to continue sensitizing women to
stay off prostitution. In a phone chat with
Sunday Trust, he says: ‘You know, of
course, we cannot monitor the internet in
order to stop prostitution. But what I can
tell you is that we are not relenting in our
efforts to stop the trend and the results
show this. We still carry out sensitisation in
these areas even till date.”
Emman Shehu, director, International
Institute of Journalism, Abuja, notes that
there is little the authorities can do to
curtail activities on the internet, as such
would greatly affect individual liberty. He
says people should take responsibility for
their acts online. In a recent interaction, he
enthuses, “my belief is that anyone who
uses the internet should know that he (or
she) has a sense of responsibility. He or
she is meeting people they don’t know, so
they have to be discerning. It’s like going to
a party and meeting many people. There is
no censorship in meeting these people”.
Gregory Gilderman, a researcher who has
done extensive work on the upsurge in
internet prostitution using a shadow
subject Brittany, says the trend may soon
overrun many parts of the world. “While
critics have charged classified sites with
facilitating sex trafficking, for women like
Brittany, who have freely chosen
prostitution and whose clients freely
choose them, the Internet has made the
transactions fast, simple, and discreet,” he
writes.
“New research suggests it hasn’t merely
moved online and indoors those who once
worked the street, but done something
more transformative: created a different
sort of sex worker—more educated,
younger—and a bigger market of women
selling sexual services online... sex work for
women between ages 20 and 40 has mostly
shifted from an outdoor activity involving
street walking to an indoor activity involving
online solicitation and communication.
Second, because is it much easier to buy
and sell sex, there are simply more
prostitutes, and clients, than there were
before,” he adds.
A sex worker, nicknamed ‘Mabel’, tells this
reporter that ‘survival of the fittest’ is the
singsong for most of them today. “We just
have to survive. I do not engage in useless
chatter on the internet. I do business there.
I am not there to make friends but to make
money,” she says. “So once I notice that
you are wasting my time I cut you off”.

Culled : DAILY TRUST