Right in the center of Jos Metropolis at the popular Old Airport Junction is a one-storey building called Nana Plaza. The building houses some shops downstairs, while the top floor hosts offices, including a law firm.
Nana Plaza could be described as an unimposing building, with the tenants engaged in legitimate businesses. However, behind the plaza is an open space, about one plot where other business ventures take place, including food canteens and beer parlours where one can get quick meals and bottles of alcoholic drinks to wash down.
But all the legitimate businesses wind up with the close of day and as night falls, Nana Plaza takes another life of its own. A different form of business takes over. The front of the plaza becomes home for dealers of roasted fish, chicken, dog, and pork meat sellers.
Added to the brisk business ventures are a group of young men, popularly called “Michika Boys” who sell cigarettes, hot drinks, and illicit drugs under the cover of darkness.
Those activities would pass as ordinary businesses where the sellers eke out a living. But behind Nana Plaza is another world. As early as 8pm, the open space becomes a den of the age-long skin trade where teenage prostitutes hold sway trading their bodies for money.
The prostitution ring that unfolds at the Plaza, with some as young as 14 years.
The prostitution ring starts as early as 8 and runs till the early hours of the next day.
DAILY POST correspondent went undercover and spoke to some of the young girls and their responses spoke volumes about the menace that has gradually crept into Jos city.
Most of them blamed parental neglect, hunger, drug abuse, displacement due to violence, poverty, unemployment, peer pressure, laziness, love of money, and sexual addiction.
First to speak was Rachael, a 16-year-old mother of one who said she was forced to become a prostitute to take care of her child after the man who got her pregnant abandoned her, and her parents threw her out of the house.
“I was only 14 when my boyfriend impregnated me and refused to take responsibility. I was in JSS two and I was naive.
“I did not know he was a married man until I became pregnant and he refused to accept the pregnancy. I had to drop out of school and to add to the humiliation, my parents chased me out of the house.
“Things became so difficult for me and I had to do anything to survive. It was one aunty in my neighborhood who brought me to Nana Plaza to help her in her fish roasting business.
“When I first came here, I noticed that she would often disappear with different men during the night and when I asked her where she often went, she revealed that those men were her boyfriends who would take her to nearby hotels, sleep with her and pay her.
“She told me she had to engage in that to augment what she was making from the fish business. She told me I could make good money from those men and introduced me to some of them.
“That was how I was initiated into prostitution and though I am not proud of doing it, I have no choice as I have to take care of my child.”
For Linda, a 15-year-old girl, it was a violent attack and displacement of her community by bandits that forced her to come to Jos to “hustle” to take care of her family.
“I am from Riyom Local Government Area and I was in JSS 3 when Fulani people came to our village and killed many people, including my elder brother who was taking care of us after our parents died. Everybody in our village was chased out and we had to go and live in a camp (IDP Camp).
“Things were very difficult in the camp as we did not have enough food to eat and some of the camp officials used to force us to have sex with them or they would not give us food.
“One day, one girl who was my friend said we should run away and we escaped from the camp and first went to Kugiya in Bukuru where we started prostitution but last year, some officers came and arrested many people.
“I managed to escape and that was how I found myself here. I am not happy selling my body at this age but I have no choice because I have to take care of my younger ones,” she disclosed.
For Afiniki, an 18-year-old mother of two, her journey to becoming a prostitute was influenced by bad friends.
She said she was living with her mother after the death of her father but due to the influence of bad friends, she dropped out of school and followed them to Abuja where they engaged in prostitution.
In the process, she got pregnant and had to come back home. Though her mother was angry with her, she took her in and cared for her and her baby. When the child was about eight months, Afiniki left her with her mother and went back to Abuja to continue with her life.
Soon after, she became pregnant again and had to come back to Jos.
“Depending on the number of men I can get, I make between N5,000 and N10,000 per night but on a bad day, one can hang here till very late and would not make up to N2,000.
“On such days, you can accept N500 or even N200 for a round of sex so you can have something to eat the next day.
“I won’t lie to you, prostitution is not good and I regret it every day but there is nothing I can do,” Afiniki said.
Meanwhile, efforts to obtain comments from government authorities were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.
