48-HOUR ULTIMATUM GIVEN TO 'ASHAWO' TO VACATE ABUJA EXPIRE TODAY

The Secretary for Social Development, Mrs. Blessing Onuh, after an official visit to several locations known to witness heavy activity of prostitutes and their patrons in the Federal Capital Territory, then gave a 48-hour ultimatum to vacate the city or face the full wrath of the law while men and women who patronise them will be punished with a death sentence.

She noted that prostitution has metamorphosed from the conventional sedentary practice in local brothels to a sophisticated cartel of “runs babes” and the corporate realm and that the ‘executive’ type now holds in many luxury hotels in the Abuja metropolis and the exquisite homes of the super-rich. Spots like Port Harcourt Crescent, off Gimbiya Street, Garki; Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Sheraton Junction in Wuse II; and virtually all the discothèques; including poor neighbourhoods like Nyanyan, Mararaba and Gwagwa, have joined the illicit trade.

“They parade a horde of half-unclad girls and women of various ages and sizes brazenly exposing themselves, while openly and desperately beckoning on motorists and passers-by to pick them for the night. 

They insult, poke rude jokes and pour vituperation on those who look at them scornfully or ignore them. Indeed, for Abuja’s affluent and powerful men, it has become commonplace to place order for these women on the street or import them from other states and even from far-flung countries in the Caribbean and Asian countries.

High-society social, political functions are incomplete without a harem of these shadowy women. The import of these is that the upsurge requires a holistic framework to be able to deal with this seemingly intractable scourge.”