“I remember a certain customer, a big man from Abuja, whose wife would always call him whenever he entered my room. He would lie to her, ‘Darling, I’m still very busy in the office. I love you.’ We would laugh. He spent hours with me, bought fuel for my small generator and relaxed”. Here, some girls and women live, work and share experiences that have debased womanhood. To them, they have chosen the oldest profession ever! Here, they sell their bodies and collect their lucre, not minding whether it is filthy or clean. Here, ‘man na man,’ even when he is a little boy! Here, these ladies must survive and they go to any extent to achieve that. This profession cuts across every age: Young, old and the very old. Here, nobody calls anybody a woman, or a girl; rather, they are all Ashantes and the slogan is: no sister for jungle.

Welcome to the red-light district of Suleja, Niger State. Situated in an old army barracks, it is said to have over 500 beer parlours. Being a Sharia-compliant state, only the Officers’ Mess or Mammy Market, as popularly called, is permitted to run beer parlours in the outpost.

To some passers-by, these are just drinking joints, but to customers and other residents of the barracks, it’s more than meet the eye. Built as backyards of these beer parlours are shacks, which are termed ‘lodgings.’ These lodgings have names like Christos, Mandaline, Freeman, etc. For the brothels, a red paint is used as numbering and by the time any ‘customer’ gets to Mess 10, there would have been more than a bevy of ladies of various shapes and sizes throwing themselves at him, displaying their ‘wares’ with attractive, but reasonable prices.

The new face of Princess Peace Alfred. Inset : Princess, as a commercial sex worker until June 20, 2007 Princess, an evangelist today may soon become a ‘Queen’ Pastor and own a church. “Okotie, take a back seat, here comes Princess”.

Princess Peace Alfred lived in Mess 10. Known then as Rosemary, her natural endowments stood her out. “In Ashante world, you have to flaunt what you have to get customers,” she recollects. “That’s why you see prostitutes flaunting either their breasts or thighs, buttocks or any part of their bodies, which they know are irresistible. They wear sexy clothes, walk around and I also flaunted my breasts and buttocks because I thought they were what would attract any man.

“Ashantes are hard, mean and would do anything to get N200 from any customer. Lying and deceit go hand-in-hand in the profession and if you fall in love with any man, it is at your own peril. Ashawo no dey love. I saw men coming to me, professing love and proposing marriage, but I knew they were lying because they wanted to sleep with you without condom or they are Odo-free, i.e. they wanted free sex.”

The shocking thing about Alfred’s story is that she was born and bred in a very decent environment. Her father, a former non-academic staff at the University of Maiduguri, retired and returned to his village. “We are from Enugu, but I was born and raised in Maiduguri, so I speak the Hausa language fluently. We were six kids in the family and in my secondary school, I took up teaching pupils after school and I earned some money.

“This continued after my school leaving certificate because I needed the money. I had approached my elder brother to help me with some money so that I can trade with, but his wife would not allow him help. So, when I saw a cousin of ours who came from Abuja, I didn’t hesitate to ask her for help. She was looking really good. My cousin promised to help me if I can come to Abuja and she gave me an address at Gwagwalada. I came, thinking that I would get a better employment, but after spending a few days with her, I discovered that she was a prostitute.

“She stood on the road and hawked her body. Though I was not a virgin then, I could not comprehend why she should be involved in this kind of trade. So, I begged her for N10, 000 to start off my own business, but she refused. She made me to realise that as a widow, she had done this to survive, what stopped a young woman like me from hawking my body to get money. That was in March 2006.

“By April 1, 2006, I decided to join her and other girls and I became an Ashante at Gwagwa. I was a complete novice in the profession, but I was taught by my cousin and others on how to use condom, condom oil and so many things in the hustling world.”

Not many Ashantes would forget their experience with their first customers, Princess inclusive. “When the man ‘entered’ me, he was very rough and I felt my stomach aching. When I could not endure it again, I pushed him off and ran outside to meet other girls. I wanted to walk away, but they encouraged me and assured me that subsequent sessions would be pleasurable as long as I use condom oil.”

Her stay in Gwagwa was short-lived, no thanks to Nasir El-Rufai’s wave of demolition, when he was the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory in the previous regime. So, to Suleja, Old Barracks they all went.

She speaks the English language fluently and meeting her in decent clothes, nothing gave her away as a prostitute. Not even her parents knew. “I told them that I was working as a petrol attendant in an Abuja gas station. To convince my mother the more, I told her that I was also a business woman and that I sold wrappers and jewelleries. My mother must have sensed that I was into something funny because she never collected any money from me. Even whenever I ask my father if he needed anything, he would tell me he had enough,” she says.
At Suleja, which is just a few kilometres from Abuja, she became a thorough-bred Ashante, secured a room and paid N200 daily to the manager.

Success in harlotry? She replies, “Yes. Many Ashantes patronise herbalists and spiritualists for either protection or more customers. I did. I found out that one could die or be used for rituals by some customers. Even your co-Ashante could get jealous over your endowments and your many customers, especially if they are rich. I knew of some Ashantes that died mysteriously and were deposited at the mortuary. One of my neighbours even died in her room.

“There was one day I saw a charm in front of my door and I consulted an herbalist, who told me that someone wanted me out of the place. Little wonder, I was always sleeping off when it was time to hustle. I went to spiritual churches, did protective charms and more of catching customers. I had commanding powder with padlock, attraction powder, do-as-I-say powder, love-me eye pencil, kiss-me lipstick and commanding mirror, which nobody looked at except me. There was harm-me-not, which would send any evil back to whoever sent it, especially my customers.”
Is she insinuating that some men are evil? She promptly replies, “Some ashawo men (that is what we call our customers) are very fetish. I remember one of my customers when I was still a novice. He would come with two condoms, which he used. The inner one contained his semen, while the outer one would have touched my private part. He went away with these, after which I would have severe stomach pain. I was discussing this with other Ashantes when they shared their experience. Then, it dawned on me that he was fetish and when next he came, I took my condom and told him to go and use his semen for rituals! He never came again.”

‘Catching fun’ with 20 men daily is a Herculean task for any woman, her strength notwithstanding. How was she able to wade through? Princess reveals, “They all would not come at the same time. Some could come in the morning for either ‘short time,’ which was just for five minutes. The fee was N300/N400. No need laying on me fully, that would attract another N200. Not even touching the breasts.

“I remember a certain customer, a big man from Abuja, whose wife would always call him whenever he entered my room. He would say, ‘Darling, I’m still very busy in the office. I love you.’ We would laugh. He spent hours with me, bought fuel in my small generator and relaxed.”

That some Abuja big men patronise prostitutes will not make Princess budge. It was the man of God and some other ‘vibrant’ Christians that shocked her. She explains, “There was this man who would come in a Jeep, wear shorts and T-shirt and whenever he entered my room, he would ask me to put off the red light. He was undressing one night when I saw his identity card slipped from his pocket and I realised he is a pastor! He said he needed relaxation at my place that was why he was always coming. Another ashawo man, who was very notorious at Mess 10 for hopping from one Ashante to another, is also an usher at a popular Pentecostal church in Suleja. I remember going to that church to worship and he was the usher that welcomed me in. He came later and asked if I went to church.”

But did she go to church as a prostitute? “Yes. I was attending a Catholic church in Gwagwa, but when I went to Suleja, I started attending that Pentecostal church because I like it and I was always crying when others were singing or dancing,” she says.

Asked how an Ashante copes with her menstrual period and customers and she says, “Cotton wool is stuffed inside the private part and this suspends the blood from coming out. When you are done at night, you remove, but there was a day mine didn’t come out and I thought I would die! It did not come out until the next day!”
Pregnancies? “Though I was lucky not to get pregnant, I knew of so many Ashantes, who aborted the pregnancies, some kept theirs, strangulated the babies after birth, some threw theirs away, while some sold theirs to ritual makers.”

But after a year and two months in this self-debasing profession, an event that changed her life happened. She received a phone call from an evangelist. “She said she got my number from my fiancé, who had given his life to Christ at Wuse Market, where she went on evangelism,” she recalls. Fiancé? But she has said Ashantes don’t fall in love.

“Yes, I met him three weeks into my new profession. He went with me to one of the lodgings to ‘catch fun.’ Subsequently, he started talking about his family, his life and we became lovers. When I packed to Suleja, he moved in with me, but that did not disturb my trade. He would wait outside till I’m through with my customers. It was because of him that I didn’t allow Till Day Break with any customers.”

So, how did the evangelist convert her from her Ashante world? “I discarded her first call and even told a friend, Ifeoma, who told me to forget about any sermon. That week, there was a pandemonium in the barracks. A soldier was beaten and movement was restricted. Also, there was an accident and two Ashantes died! That same night, Ifeoma, my friend had her ear chopped off by one street boy. There was blood everywhere. I became afraid and told her that after the restriction, I would go to the evangelist and when I got there, I gave my life to Christ. I am now crusading against prostitution. It is the height of human debasement. I can’t say all that happened to me or other Ashantes, but it is the worst thing to happen to any woman. You sleep with any man for money, even when they used condom, it could burst, and you get infected and so many more. I had a terrible infection that my private part was itchy to the extent that I scratched till blood came out. Even when ‘catching fun’ I was still scratching until I became a born-again Christian,” she says.

That was on June 20, 2007 and when Bimpe Sorinolu, the evangelist, was contacted, she has this to say on Princess, “Princess is currently undergoing pastoral school and had already gone for an HIV/AIDS test. It was a miracle to her that it proved negative. Princess is ready to go on a full campaign against prostitution. When we went to pack her things at the brothel, we ministered to other girls and they also gave their lives but we pray that they also leave that place. Even the manager has agreed to quit the business.”