That’s why I don’t go to church
Stella Johnson, a Ghanaian , had heard so much about Nigeria as the El Dorado of the West African sub-region, and indeed Africa. She was made to believe that Nigeria is the ‘America’ of Africa. Apart from being the most populous nation on the continent, money incredibly adorns the streets of Nigeria as an oil-rich nation. Nigeria is ranked among the top 10 oil-producing countries of the world.

Armed with this all-important information, and determined to explore it to the letter, Johnson sometime in 1996 reached for a big bag that could contain her belongings, especially the beautiful clothes befitting her dream environment, and left her home country and arrived in Nigeria with a sense of fulfilment. She entered through the popular Seme border quietly like any other traveller.

But when she alighted from the vehicle at Mile 2 and saw the streets crowded by human and vehicular traffic as against the money she had seen in her world of fantasy, the sign of the life that was ahead of her in Nigeria first confronted her.

However, as a Ghanaian, naturally driven by the dogged determination to weather any storm, Johnson would not be intimidated. The prevalent chaotic environment in Lagos did not frighten her. Rather, she decided to carry her cross, having realised that she had no place to run back to. According to her, she had lost her husband, and her marriage did not produce any child. Johnson, therefore, considered herself a citizen of the world. She found her way to Benin City, the Edo State capital, where Alice, her childhood friend was then resident.

Though a trained fashion designer, Johnson was surviving in Benin on menial jobs with occasional assistance from Alice, her hostess. In 2003, Alice, perhaps fed up with Johnson‘s seeming over-reliance on her for seven years, made an effort to give her friend financial independence of sort.

”That year, she (Alice) gave me N19,500 to start a business, And I was selling children clothes. I used to travel to Onitsha to buy the clothes and sell them in Benin. The business was moving. But my elder sister died. I spent part of the money on the problem. And I was also careless with the money,” Johnson told Sunday Punch.

As a result of her careless attitude, she paid the price for her financial recklessness. Paying back the loan from Alice became a nightmare, which she found difficult to live with. Succour finally came her way when another friend in their area suggested that she travel out of Benin to ‘hustle.‘ ‘Hustle‘ is a euphemism for prostitution.

The advice turned out to be an idea already in Johnson‘s mind, but which she lacked the guts to discuss with anyone. She quickly jumped at it and set off to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, where she was further advised she would find a good market. ”I came here in March this year,” said Johnson last week at the cell where she was being detained in the Oyo State capital. ”I lodged at Pako Hotel in Ekotedo.”

Gradually, Johnson, 38, steadily rose to become the ‘matriarch‘ of commercial sex workers in the whole district of Ekotedo, the area derisively known as the Ibadan equivalent of Ayilara Street in Ojuelegba, Lagos. She seemed to enjoy the status as she responded to questions about the area with generous smiles during our encounter.

However, the matter currently hanging on Johnson‘s neck shows that all the smiles on her face are after all her own way of dousing the tension. She is being investigated for a child-trafficking case by detectives at the State Criminal Investigation Department at Iyaganku, Ibadan.

The police said she coerced a 15-year-old girl, Fortune Julius (not real names), into prostitution. ”We got a tip-off of her activities as a child trafficker. Then our men went to that hotel at Ekotedo. They saw the young girl, and when they wanted to arrest her, she was shouting the lady‘s name. That was what gave her away. Two of them were immediately taken to the station for interrogation,” the Police Public Relations Officer, Oyo State Command, Bisi Okuwobi, said.

However, Johnson vehemently denied the allegations by the police. She said she was not a child trafficker. However, she admitted she earned a living through commercial sex work. She also admitted that she knew Fortune. ”She (Fortune) was brought to me by Florence, whom I know from Benin. Florence said I should help her to take care of the girl. She introduced her as her sister,” Johnson said.

She added, ”I didn‘t force her to do this type of work. She is not my girl; I am just helping her. It may be because I always took care of her, that’s why they said I forced her to do the work. I was even planning to take her to one hairdresser to train her. I was only helping her because she is too young for this type of business.”

The girl at the centre of the case, not minding the intimidating presence of the stern-looking policemen in the cell, did not betray her benefactor. She said Johnson did not force her into the unholy business. She said the person that brought her to Johnson forced her into it and collected her money before she abandoned her with Johnson.

Even as the girl exonerated her ‘big sister,‘ saving her from possible prosecution in a court of law, Johnson is still very far from happiness. The ghost of her immoral act is so frightening to her that she is not sure of her life after the police cell.

”Brother, this work is not good at all,” she lamented. ”It is a sin. I know it is a sin. That is why I don‘t go to church. Whenever some of us go to church, I pity them. I don‘t go because I don‘t want to fool God. But thank God this thing has happened. I am now thinking of going for deliverance. I want to stop the work by December and return home.”

Johnson has indeed seen it all in the world of women of easy virtue. Going down memory lane, she confessed to have dated many married men in Ghana long before she exported the trade to Nigeria. ”I stopped that when the wives of those men were making trouble with me. They used to embarrass me. That was why I stopped. I also realised that it was too dangerous to move around.”

But when the necessity came, as Johnson put it, she threw herself back into the game, catching unlimited fun with all sorts of men at N200 per session. ”The first time I did it, I didn‘t enjoy it,” she revealed. ”Let me say it pained me. But later, I didn‘t feel the pain again.”

The occasional visits of various non-governmental organisations to brothels seem to have impact on the prostitutes. But through lectures and other enlightening programmes on the danger of HIV/AIDS, the ladies insist on what is called protective sex. That is strict use of condom. ”My customers know me. I don‘t do it without condom,” Johnson said.

The police seem to be less bothered on any enlightenment programme for the prostitutes. Okuwobi said, ”What we are saying is that we are resolute in fishing out culprits. We are not against anybody in particular. We are not after any hotel; we are only concerned about the children some heartless people are abusing.”