For the uninformed first-time visitor, the serene atmosphere
could be deceptive. Everybody seems too busy either minding or going about his
or her legitimate business. But that is how far the good story about Itiro
(pronounced “Interior”), a tiny fun spot tucked away in Agboju community in
Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State, goes.
Except for the initiate, Itiro is not a popular place. Even
for the very few who are conversant with Agboju, the name is out of it. But
though an obscure area located behind the roots and herb market near the Mile
2-Badagry Expressway, Itiro bubbles 24 hours every day. It is a beehive of
flagrant immorality and lawlessness; perhaps Nigeria’s version of the Biblical
Sodom and Gomorrah. Itiro thrives in the bad and the ugly, harbouring
prostitutes of the weirdest class, serial rapists as well as drug and alcoholic
addicts.
At both sides of the Itiro’s dark alley are two long and
windy face-me-I-face-you structures that serve as home and workplace for the
sex hawkers. Both the young and the old, some of them pretty enough to harass
the scarecrow, literally dot the scores of doorposts displaying their fleshy
wares. Itiro is home to seemingly retired prostitutes even though activities in
the sex marketplace suggest that age is hardly a barrier.
Within a stretch of the gangway in the area is a sharp bend
on the left (if the visitor came through the Expressway) and on the right, if
through the Old Ojo road, that leads to another dark enclave where marijuana
and other hard drugs are freely consumed. A source told Sunday Sun that serial
rapists also operate at the same dark spot where hard substances are sold and
consumed. Here, the only law that operates is lawlessness.
After a good dose of hard drugs, the usually male clients
would move over to the beer palours that adorn the place to drown themselves in
hot drinks and beer before patronising the flesh hawkers. Those who cannot
afford the beer and hot drinks usually go for the comparatively cheaper local
dry gin otherwise known as ‘kai kai’ or “Ogogoro” in local parlance. Many
inhale a powdery substance they ignorantly refer to as ‘solution,’ which is
highly intoxicating.
When our correspondent visited the enclave pretending to be a
passerby as strictly instructed by his guide, three haggard-looking old whores
with flabby breasts closed in on him, displaying their traditional seductive
antics. Here, the women come in various complexions, shapes and sizes. You have
the old and the young; the big and the small; the heavily breasted with highly
endowed buttocks, the tall and the short; the fair-skinned, dark-skinned or
chocolate coloured.
Also, there are the ‘old horses’ and the tenderfoot
scrambling to stay afloat in the business. One of them was so daring that she
nudged this reporter with her breasts signalling him into a cave-like room for
business discussion.
Though our correspondent was surprised, it was obvious that
the action was not novel and so, he played along. The old lady was shapeless,
huge and tall with intimidating stretch marks on the essential parts of her
body. As she was busy twisting her waist, displaying her flabby and
stretch-marked breasts, lubricating her lips in a sexually enticing manner
while manipulating her eyes salaciously, our correspondent asked her what she
wanted.
She said she wanted hot and scintillating sex and that the
price was affordable. On further inquiry, she told our correspondent that
having it with the lady completely naked or ‘pull clothes,’ a it is tagged in
the trade, goes for N1000 while half nakedness attracts a paltry N700.
When our correspondent protested that the price was too high,
she came down to N500 and eventually volunteered to offer her services free if
he did not have any cash, provided the rest of the negotiation was done inside
her room. At this point, our reporter sensed danger and asked to be excused for
some minutes to enable him go and eat before the real business.
She obliged and the reporter escaped. But that smart move was
soon aborted by another ‘grandma’ who accosted him. It was around 10:30am. This
time, Clara as she was later identified didn’t waste any minute in telling him
how she would give him any style he wanted. She said she was ready to take the
reporter to ‘cloud 7’ and prove to him that ‘there are prostitutes but there are
prostitutes.’ Asked about her state of origin, Clara debunked the popular
belief that women from a particular riverine state in the country are more
proficient in sexual acts pointing out that some people could disappoint you
when the chips are down.
“This has got nothing to do with tribe. Let me tell you, I
know what I can do. Tribe doesn’t matter. It is not a determinant in this game.
It’s just a personal effort at being the best of what you do. It is a personal
skill that is learnt over the years; that’s all. I will give you whatever style
you want,” Clara promised.
Asked to mention the styles she knew and which one she was
expert in, she retorted: “Is it the front, the back, the side-by-side, the
squatting, the acrobatic or what do you want? I know that most men like back
style. Whichever style you choose, you will not regret knowing me, and you will
ever come back to look for me; I promise you. Just try me.”
Apparently suspecting that this reporter did not have the
N1000 she had demanded, she also volunteered to render free service to prove
the old saying that, “One good turn deserves another”. But the reporter quickly
applied his earlier strategy. “Let me go and eat first because the way I am
seeing your eyes, if we go into that room, you will rape me and I have not
eaten today or do you want to kill somebody?”
Protesting the request, Clara wondered how a young man like
the reporter should be talking about death because of simple early morning sex,
which according to her, should be the safest because in her reasoning that is
when the energy of every able-bodied young man ought to be at the maximum,
breakfast or no breakfast.
When Sunday Sun went back the second time around 7:30pm to
observe nightlife in Itiro, another chapter was opened. The prostitutes were at
their element. Each displayed her entire arsenal except the ‘sacred forest,’
all in a bid to lure men to bed and make some cool cash. Also paraded were
different shapes and sizes of breasts, some of them very flat that one could
mistake their bearers for men, if not for the skimpy pants they put on. Some
have extra large and loose boobs while others flaunt long paw-paw-like breasts
with heavy stretch marks.
Also on display were seemingly standing boobs which on
enquiry, turned out to be false, papier-mâché breasts meant to hoodwink and
attract customers. One of the hawkers came out with heavily built ‘front
arrows’ dangerously sprouting, with the nipples pointing sharply, an indication
that they were supported with groundnut as our reporter later found out.
It was also discovered that the prostitutes at Itiro offer
breast sucking for a token. Some men, Sunday Sun checks revealed, go there to
suck breasts only for a fee. It was further gathered that such men either
suffer poor erection or are afraid of contracting sexually transmitted
diseases.
To confirm this finding, this reporter approached one of the
women and demanded for breast-sucking only. The young fat hawker in her 50s,
who later gave her name as Rose demanded for N300 for 10 minutes of breast-suck.
She said that most of them dislike the idea of sucking their breasts without
doing the real thing but they would readily oblige but for a fee, if that is
what their customer wants. According to her, the women are averse to
breast-suck alone for three reasons.
One, the money is small. Two, it takes longer time and three,
it causes emotional discomfort for them because they would have been taken to
“cloud 7 and ready for action” only for the customer to end the fantasy midway.
This, according to her, has often forced a good number of them to offer free
sex just to stabilise their erotic emotion.
“The breast-suck no be am. We just dey do that one just
because of bad market. If market dey, nobody get time for that because e no dey
pay big money and e dey make our body one kind after the man don suck finish.
“Many of us go even look for men wey go do us even if they no get money. We no
mind but make our body cool down first. So, no be say we like am like that but
just bad market,” Rose explained in pidgin English.
Talking of Itiro and its notoriety, a young man who sells
recharge cards at Agboju bus stop, described it as small but mighty. He shared
his experience on a particular day. “That very fateful day, I decided to take
that route to my house at the other side of Old Ojo road having closed for the
day’s work. While on my way home, one hefty woman just grabbed me by the waist
from behind. Though it was about 8pm, I wrestled to extricate myself from her
grip and I told her that I was a child of God.
She called the attention of her colleagues and they were
laughing and booing me saying, “Pastor wey dey pass where Ashawo dey live,
wetin e dey find; no be sex?” They laughed but I hurriedly escaped and since
that day I have not passed through the place again.”
Continuing, he said: “It is not only those Ashawo you see
there that made Itiro a very bad place. If you look at the alley very well, you
will see an adjoining entrance by your left. If you went in through the
Badagry-Mile 2 Expressway, it will lead you to another point where the bad boys
smoke all kinds of Indian hemp and what have you.
“The place is also known for rape. There are rapists prowling
around, though that normally happens at night. If you are a female and maybe
you are a stranger and you go near the place at night, they would just descend
on you. I think that is because having taken much drugs and alcohol, they would
naturally want to have sex and if they don’t have money to pay those
prostitutes, they would descend on any innocent girl they see around.”
Another man who identified himself as Clement and sells
clothes at the Old Ojo Road side of Itiro said the class of prostitutes that
the place parades are mostly women in their late 50s and early 60s. He told a
story of a young man who visited her mother-in-law living in the place. The
woman saw nothing wrong in the visit just as her daughter and husband did not
see anything wrong in what the woman was doing. Clement saw everything wrong
with such actions.
Speaking about rape in the vicinity, a man who lives in the
neighbourhood told Sunday Sun that people are raped virtually every day. “There
are serial rapists in that small enclave called Itiro. They would be at the
Express side of the jungle to direct ladies who are looking for a connecting
road to the Old Ojo road. They would appear as real helpers but they are wolves
in sheep’s clothing. As soon as their target enters, they would signal their
accomplices at a dark spot before the other side of Old Ojo road.
Those ones would whisk the unlucky lady to their base
threatening her to submission with weapon. And the most surprising thing is
that unless you are told, you can never suspect that such a place exists. There
is no sign that such evil is perpetrated in the place but if you put your ear
to the ground, you will get more than you even bargained for. It is that bad,”
he said.
Investigation revealed that aside prostitution and rape,
another bad side of Itiro is drug business. Substances such as Marijuana or
‘Igbo’ in local parlance and other hard drugs as well as local gin (kai kai)
are sold and consumed with reckless abandon; thus, making Itiro a breeding
ground for criminals and a hide-out for hoodlums.
Checks also revealed that the police are aware of the place
and the level of crime that goes on there but chose to do nothing because they
are also alleged beneficiaries. It was gathered that each time they stormed the
place, they would be offered free sex, after which, they would look the other
way. It was also learnt that sometimes, the law enforcement agents would force
the women to sleep with them or risk being arrested.
As for the drug peddlers, it was discovered that they are
allowed to carry on with their trade unhindered because some of the policemen
also patronize them. Each time they go there, they are offered the hard drugs
and some bottles of beer-free-of-charge and with that, the illicit business
goes on unhindered.
Checks also revealed that Itiro, as small and obscure as it
is, bubbles with activities round the clock. A source aptly captured this way:
“Night is day and day is night at Itiro; but Itiro is only known to very few
persons. Not even many people who do business in Agboju market or around the
market know about the place. It is indeed small but very mighty.” He is right.
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http://247nigerianewsupdate.com/city-of-sin-where-sex-is-legal-tender/,
By: SUNDAY ANI
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