Commercial sex workers, who
ply their trade in Ado Ekiti are
currently angry. They are angry
because the dreaded Ebola
disease, which has spread to
Lagos, is spoiling business for
them.
The dreaded Ebola virus came
into the country through a
Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, who
has since died in a Lagos
hospital. Two more persons, a
Nigerian nurse, who treated the
Liberian, and an official of the
Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS), have
also died after being infected
by Sawyer.
Checks by Daily Sun in about
six brothels in Ado Ekiti
revealed that commercial sex
workers in the capital city now
literally drive away would be
customers from Lagos and any
prospective client that reveals
he is from Lagos.
In the same way, patrons of call
girls in Ekiti now ask about the
recent movement of any of the
prostitutes before choosing
who to do business with. This
is to find out and avoid those
who might have gone to Lagos.
A young lady, who gave her
name as Lovie Baby, is a pretty
commercial sex worker in a
brothel in Ojumose area of Ado
Ekiti. The Akwa Ibom State-
born prostitute told the
reporter, after consuming a few
bottles of beer on the reporter’s
bill, that since the Ebola
outbreak in Lagos, many of her
colleagues, including herself,
now run away from customers
from the nation’s commercial
capital.
“Bros, dis life no too sweet o,
but no one wants to die.
Nowadays, if any man comes to
meet me and says he is from
Lagos, I will run o! Because I
don’t want to get that Ebola
virus o!” she said.
Chichi, another sex worker in a
brothel at Okeyinmi area of Ado
Ekiti, told the reporter that she
was a student of a tertiary
institution in Kano. She said
she came all the way from Kano
State where she lives with her
parents to do some ‘runs’ – a
term for part-time prostitution
– with her friends and sisters
in Ado Ekiti. Asked why she ran
from school, she said the
school was currently on strike.
Chichi told the reporter that her
friends and sisters, who have
been on ground and
understand the trade better in
the Ado Ekiti area, have warned
her vehemently to beware of
men, who claim to be from
Lagos, as she could contract
the Ebola virus from them.
Said she: “Although I know that
men from Lagos pay good
money for sex, my people here
have warned me not to let them
touch me, let alone ‘do
business’ with me. I don’t want
to die now, so I am not
attending to any Lagos man
now. I prefer the local people.
When Ebola is no more, then we
can start thinking of playing
with men from Lagos.”
Another commercial sex worker,
who wouldn’t have anything to
do with any man from Lagos is
Joy. The young lady, who
claims she is from Benin, Edo
State capital, operates from a
guest house along Iworoko
Road, Ado-Ekiti. She was quite
frank about the Ebola scare.
She said she had actually
nursed the thought of leaving
Ekiti for Lagos in search of
greener pastures in her line of
business, adding, however, that
she was already changing her
mind now that Ebola is in
Lagos.
“You see, I wanted to leave this
place for Lagos but this Ebola
problem is causing me to have
a change of mind.”
She said men in Ekiti State
were not too generous to
commercial sex workers like
her. “I am really suffering here
because of that. But I have
recently been turning down
requests for visits to Lagos by
my clients there because you
don’t know who has it and who
doesn’t, since they say mere
kissing or body contact
transmits the disease,” she said
as she puffed on a stick of
cigarette.
But some others are hardly
bothered about the disease.
Although, they shrink at the
mere mention of Ebola, they
wish and pray that they would
never be visited by the disease.
“I don’t know about that kind
of a thing and I believe it will
not happen to me. But my
business goes on with any man
that can pay me well,” Chinwe,
another sex worker said.
However, a post on the Ebola
virus on the social media,
credited to Joyce Akpata,
Director-General, Nigerian-
British Chamber of Commerce,
and entitled: US Department
Ebola Alert, gave further hints
on preventing measures and
steps to take on the disease. It
reads in part: “Our medical
specialists remind everyone
that they should be following
the guidelines from the Centre
for Disease Control and the
World Health Organisation.”
According to the post, a major
reservoir for Ebola is the fruit
bat. Transmission to humans is
thought to originate from
infected bats or primates that
have become infected by bats.
Undercooked infected bat and
primate (bush) meat transmits
the virus to humans and human
to human transmission is only
achieved by physical contact
with a person, who is acutely
and gravely ill from the Ebola
virus or their body fluids.
Transmission among humans is
almost exclusively among
caregiver family members or
health care workers, tending to
the very ill. The virus is easily
killed by contact with soap,
bleach, sunlight, or drying.
But for most commercial sex
workers in Ekiti, it’s better to
avoid clients from Lagos. “How
do you determine a man that is
suffering from Ebola? My
brother, it’s better to keep away
from any man you know is from
Lagos, at least, for now,” Joy
said.
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