15th June, 2010
The three-day quit notice issued to commercial sex workers in Abuja, Nigeria, by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed, through the secretary in charge of Social Development in the FCT, Mrs. Blessing Onuh, last Saturday night expires midnight today.
Ahead of the expiration of the quit notice, a task force has been set up by the minister and has begun to map out strategies to rid Nigeria’s capital city of the menace of the commercial sex workers.
Mr. Ogbuenyi Nosike, the Special Assistant on Media to the Minister, stated that no responsible government can close its eyes to what the activities of these sex workers constitute to the residents of Abuja as well as to those who patronise them.
He reiterated that the FCT was conceived to be a place governed by rules and regulations and warned the city dwellers who patronised the sex workers to desist from the act especially in the face of HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The FCT image maker further noted that loitering is prohibited and that the conduct of commercial sex workers is akin to loitering.
The presence of commercial sex workers in Abuja had been on a steady rise in recent times and they no longer restrict themselves to the notorious areas like Zone 4 in Wuse district area of Abuja metropolis, Garki II in the Garki district and other locations where there are five star hotels.
Recently, they operate in literally all the residential areas as well as high brow shopping centres which hitherto were not red light districts.
—Nnamdi Felix/Abuja