SIN CITY: Hard drugs, alcohol daily diets Women display breasts 24/7 Men gamble, watch x-rated movies all day

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

The enclave of Ijora Badia in Apapa/Ajeromi area council of Lagos State is a constellation of absurdity. It is indeed a melange of miscreants, roughnecks, gangsters, fraudsters and prostitutes. It is an enclave situated along the railway line that runs from Ijora to Iddo. The environment is filthy with euglena infested brackish lagoon, which harbours dangerous reptiles and breeds mosquitoes in their millions.

From Ijora bus-stop, a macadamized road which links the bus-stop with the Ijora Badia railway line community gives a wrong impression of where it leads to. On both sides of the link road are shops that display different wares ranging from electronic equipments to clothes, shoes, bags among other articles of trade. But the end of the link road exposes one to the railway line habitat which bubbles with plethora of indecent and unspeakable activities.

By the swampy side of the railway are clusters of large wooden cabin suspended up to six feet on top of the brackish lagoon. There are several of such accommodation housing half naked, haggard, dishevelled, fierce-looking women of all sizes, shapes and ages. In fact, one could rightly say the cabins are brothels on the lagoon. By 12 noon when our reporter visited the enclave, some of the women especially the older ones appeared worn-out with bulging, sleepy red eyes, which was an indication that they must have had a busy night the previous day. It is also an indication that business is booming. Even as they intermittently shut their eyes and nod their heads involuntarily as they fight against sleep trying to envelope them, reliable sources revealed that they are still ready for action if a customer calls.

For the younger ladies, most of whom appear tattered and unkempt, they sit in clusters with their navels on display as well as their breasts shot out like balloons. Although, the sight of those rioting breasts would appear repulsive to any reasonable man as stretch marks run horizontally and vertically across, the male folks in the community who appear morally depraved and who seem no less better, find such commodity very luscious, salacious and sexually scintillating. They also wear skimpy tight skirts and shorts that expose their thighs up to their pubic region but like the breast, such exposures are also very repugnant. This is because instead of robust and succulent thighs which would spark a riotous blood through the sexual veins of any healthy man, who would anxious to see what is hidden beyond the thighs, what is exposed are coarse, rough, stretch-marked and mosquito bite-infested thighs. The ladies in this breast terror, navel and thigh exposure business are lined up along the railway line. Both young and old women find breast pumping as a new fashion. From investigation, it appears that any lady who fails to expose her breast in very tempting manner could be seen as a deviant. It is right to conclude that at Ijora Badia, breasts are on parade; there is breasts fair any time any day for any willing viewer. While some display their wares in front of the make-shift wooden houses, others step forward at the base of the rail to display theirs and pretend to be recharge card sellers or phone call vendors. Investigation revealed that they have ready and booming market in the male folk of the community who are mostly gamblers, drug addicts and fraudsters.

Fighting is not a novel occurrence in Ijora Badia neighbourhood. Checks revealed that in Lagos State, the neighbourhood has the highest number of brothels where deviant teenagers who run away from their parents’ home find solace. The constellation of these young ladies who have sold their souls to sex attracts criminals in the neighbourhood. They are belligerent, testy, violent and can do anything including stripping themselves naked when angered.

Our reporter witnessed what could have been a live adult movie when a teenager almost stripped herself naked. She had a fierce argument with a male folk beside one of the wooden cabins, while two other boys and another lady circled them. She walked briskly away from there to the pavement of the rail line where she sat. But the roughneck would not let her be. He followed her to that point and the girl in readiness for what would follow picked a big stone. But, before she knew what was happening, they man grabbed her by the waist and raised her feet above the ground. When she freed herself from the man’s grips, she quickly pulled her T-shirt off while her breasts flung out at once because she wasn’t wearing any bra. The breasts dangled dangerously and violently as she proceeded to unzip and possibly to remove her shorts before the man left the scene. It didn’t even bother her that at such a tender age, her breast had become flabby and saggy. As soon as the man left, others prevailed on her to rescind her action which could have displayed a naked mature lady who is not insane in a broad day light. As this drama was unfolding, most people were not interested; they carried on as if nothing was happening. Further checks revealed that incidents like that are commonplace occurrences in the neighbourhood.

However, the male folks are seen in clusters of 15 and 20 rough, fierce looking men either drinking hot gin and smoking hard drugs or playing ludo, worth or draft games. They appear so rough and fierce-looking that one actually must be very careful in looking at them. And because they engage in one criminal activities or the other, they are always at alert and they know when a stranger comes into the habitat. They are not like the women whose only trade is to exchange their bodies for money with any willing man. Men who live among the women in make-shift wooden houses stay inside during the day except when they want to enter town, but the ones who live separate in their own wooden cabin wander up and down in company of teenage girls.

Ijora Badia is not only about prostitution, gambling, hard drug and alcoholic consumption. There are football viewing centres scattered along the rail line just as there are film houses in the place. Like most European football viewing centres in Lagos, you see sign board announcing which teams are playing. You also see viewers who are patiently waiting for the kick off time but their composition also leaves much to be desired. The look every inch like the ones earlier seen gathered smoking and drinking; a confirmation that football is a unifying force. Just as normal, reasonable people enjoy it, so also the hoodlums do. Investigation revealed that in the film centres, adult films (blue films) are freely shown during the day while the volumes of the loud speakers are raised so that outsiders can hear the sounds very well. Our reporter corroborated this finding when on approaching one of the film centres, a deep shrill, humming and moaning sound filtered into the air. Every discerning ear would know that such sounds only comes out of a woman who is being caressed by a man or one who is about to climax or reach orgasmic level of sexual ecstasy.

However, in the midst of all these, carpenters are still busy nailing woods together while hairdressers and barbers are equally busy twisting and creeping through their customers’ hairs. Food vendors as well as beer palour operators are not left out in the neighbourhood as all of them scramble to make ends meet.