A 16-year-old girl has told Lagos State Police that a woman she trusted lured her from Imo State to Lagos with a fake job promise, then drugged and forced her into prostitution for four months — making her sleep with up to 60 men daily.
The teenager, Chidinma, said she was learning baking in Imo when a woman named Princess Andrew promised her an office job in Lagos. But when she arrived at a building inside Balogun Market on Lagos Island, Andrew stripped her, gave her a blue drug that made her disoriented, and told her to stand by the door and wait for men.
“I slept with no fewer than 30 men daily. But sometimes, 60 men in one day,” Chidinma told journalists at the Lagos State Police Command yesterday.
The men paid between N5,000 and N10,000 per session, she said. But her madam gave her only N1,000 or N1,500, which she used to buy food. When she asked customers to use protection and they refused, they reported her to Andrew, who beat her with an iron rod until she bled.
“She punched me severely in the stomach, knowing fully well that I had an operation. There was a time she punched my eye. For one week, I could not see with this eye.”
Chidinma escaped after a particularly violent night. She said Andrew slammed her head against a wall when she refused to sleep with more men because of pain in her private part. She fled the building, made her way to Costain, and a man on a bus took her to Surulere, where a popcorn seller brought her to Bode Thomas Police Station.
The Divisional Police Officer was shocked when she saw Chidinma. “She said I looked 21. I am not the only girl working there. There are other girls there,” Chidinma said. She couldn't call her family because she had no phone — Andrew had seized all the girls' phones to stop them from contacting relatives.
Andrew, 28, denied the allegations. She told journalists she's a sex worker, not a madam, and that she only helped Chidinma find accommodation. She claimed Chidinma lied about her age and will be 21 this year. “She collected my money and I used my cane to wipe her,” Andrew said, without explaining what that meant.
Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Tijani, personally visited the Balogun building yesterday with journalists. He said the operation came to light after a good Samaritan found Chidinma wandering near Surulere and brought her to the station.
Tijani said the syndicate targets vulnerable minors between 13 and 15 years old. Investigators believe the cartel has trafficked about 30 girls in total. So far, police have arrested two suspects and rescued 13 underage girls from the building.
Chidinma said she just wants to go home. “I am tired. I want to go back to my catering work. I am almost done with it,” she said.