How We Protect Ourselves from Ritual Killers and Yahoo Boys – Commercial Cex Workers

Efforts to persuade her yielded little result and in the end, the rambunctious lady agreed to sit at a joint to familiarise before a final agreement would be reached between both parties.

When probed why she had refused to go with our correspondent to his hotel room at the Ikorodu area of Lagos, Kenny said she wasn’t sure if he was a genuine client, who just wanted a steamy session or something more sinister. According to her, even if she must go outside Ibafo with a client these days, she has to get the approval of her chairlady, who would first check spiritually if it is safe or not.

“We are not just talking about the money here, it is about one’s life,” she told one of our correspondents as the conversation went on. “I know I’m a ‘runs babe’ (coded name for prostitutes) but I also value my life. Many of us have been killed by those dealing in human parts in recent times, so one just has to apply care even though one wants to hustle and get good money.

“We have a flat five of us rented at Ibafo, we prefer our clients coming to patronise us there rather than going to hotels with them. But if the person is willing to pay good money, we ask our chairlady to check the road spiritually for us to see if it would be good. She has strong medicine men that work for her and the rest of us contribute a certain amount of money at the end of every month to also benefit from that type of protection. Once she warns us not to go out with any client, we listen to her regardless of the amount the person is offering. She has been in this job for more than 15 years, so she knows a lot more than us. If not for her, people like us would have run into trouble,” Kenny, who gulped three bottles of a popular beer in the nearly 25 minutes the interaction lasted, added.

Her inability to reach her chairlady that afternoon prevented her from giving in to the request of one of our correspondents. The technique is her own way of escaping the prowling eyes of ritual killers posing as genuine customers in need of good sex these days.

Resorting to selling their bodies for a fee as the last hope of survival in an increasingly hostile economy, many commercial sex workers have become easy targets for thieves, kidnappers and ritual killers across the country these days, sending fear and serious panic throughout the infamous industry. Difficult to identify through physical appearance, these ‘predators’ have come in various forms, devising all sorts of means to get their ‘preys’.

For example, last week, a young cex worker from Kogi State, Mercy Moses, lost her life to ritual killers in Azuri-Okene, Adavi Local Government Area, after being lured out of the hotel she operated in the community. Led by one Pastor Otaru Olusegun, the gang, including Yakubu Abdulmuminu and Samuel Olusegun, slept with the young lady several times before dismembering her body and burying some parts under the altar inside the Voice of Canaan Church belonging to the clergy. While confessing to the crime, the pastor claimed that poverty led him into it, revealing that he had hoped to raise around N2.5m from the ritual before he was arrested.

How We Protect Ourselves from Ritual Killers and Yahoo Boys – Commercial Cex Workers