Story from Najib SANI, Bauchi
As part of efforts to tackle prostitution among girls and women in Bauchi state, the office of the permanent commissioner of ‘Hisbah’ (Islamic police) under the Bauchi State Sharia Commission has commenced a census to get the number of prostitutes operating in brothels in the state capital.
The census was flagged off Wednesday at the notorious Bayan Gari area that houses all the brothels in the state occupied by commercial sex workers.
According to the permanent commissioner in charge of the Hisbah Barrister Aminu Balarabe Isah, the headcount would assist the state government in designing programmes that would rehabilitate and empower the commercial sex workers with a view to ending the menace.
He lamented that the rate at which teenage girls indulge in prostitution is worrisome as their acts have negative social and health effects on society.
Aminu said during the exercise, the women and girls would provide information on the reasons they left their families if they are willing to get married or reunite with their families.
The permanent commissioner also explained that those who do not want to marry or go back to their states or places of origin could be trained on some skills and be given equipment or capital to start trades and give up prostitution.
In his remarks, the state chairman hotels association Chief Eze Patrick Anyawu revealed that there are 41 hotels (brothels) in the area and 5, 000 residents.
He said as leader of the hotel’s proprietors in the state, he is ever ready to support the government to implement the programme to empower the prostitutes.
Hafsatu Aliyu and Maman Iyabo who are the women leaders in the area lamented that there are many abandoned children at Bayan Gari, they asked the government to take care of those children or co-opt them in orphanage homes.
They said some of the girls came to the place because they lost their parents to death and have no relatives that will support them financially.
They assured that if supported by the government, they will quit the act of prostitution.
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