Ashawo Girls Threaten To Go On Strike And Reveal The Names Of Government Officials That 'Visit' Them

According to The Sun, at least 2,000 prostitutes in southern Anambra state threatened to go on strike on Wednesday after local government officials demolished brothels where they lived next to a cattle market in the state capital of Awka, and the prostitutes are accusing the officials of destroying their business without notice

The Anambra State Urban Development Board allegedly stormed the brothels near the border community of Amansea on Monday afternoon with more than 50 armed police officers on the suspicion that the structures there were being used as hideouts for kidnappers and other criminals. Shortly after authorities demolished their homes, the angry prostitutes set the cattle market ablaze.

Follow the jump to see what the enraged prostitutes are saying and threatening after the jump:


In an interview with Punch magazine, the leader of the prostitutes who identified herself as Rachel said:

We are decent people. We do our business and go our way. We don’t harbor criminals. After all, most of the people that visit us are government officials. They want me to expose them? They destroyed our center and left behind other huts, kiosks and canteens that belong to the Hausa cattle traders. Is that justice? Don’t those one harbor kidnappers and criminals?

The prostitutes also said they would go on a four-day strike starting on Wednesday to protest the local government’s actions. “We want to tell them they are the people patronizing us,” Rachel told Punch.

Demolishing the brothels was part of an overall effort to drive out crime from the southern state, said the general manager of the Anambra State Urban Development Board. The brothels were illegal buildings in Amansea that have allegedly become safe havens for kidnappers and armed robbers, said Nathan Enemuo, who led the operation at the cattle market. The operation will extend to other urban areas within the Nigerian state, where prostitutes run their businesses in illegal structures, according to Enemuo.

Speaking to Vanguard, Enemuo said:

A lot of prostitutes live around Amansea cattle market, spoiling our children and constituting nuisance in the area and you know that anywhere there is brothel, criminals and kidnappers hover around there. In my capacity as the Anambra State Urban Development Board general manager, I will ensure that this does not exist anymore in the state and our activities are in line with our amiable governor’s policy on zero tolerance to crime and kidnapping in the state.