Sodom and Gomorrah in Lagos

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

For most residents of Lagos State, Agboju in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area, is not a popular place, save for people living around  Mile 2, Festac, Ojo Barracks, Okokomaiko down to Badagry axis. Names like Ajegunle, Ijora Olopa or Badia as well as Obalende are widely known by over 90 percent of Lagos residents; even if for negative activities, at least they are known but not Agboju.

Even for the very few who are conversant with Agboju, the name Itiro is out of it. Itiro is a very small habitat; very obscure and quiet such that not many who trade even in the Agboju market are aware of its existence. It is an alley that links the Old Ojo Road with the Mile 2 – Badagry Expressway. Located behind the root and herb market in Agboju by Mile 2-Badagry Expressway and directly opposite Baale Street by the Old Ojo Road, Itiro bubbles 24 hours every day. It is a beehive of morally depraved activities.

It is home to all kinds of absurdities. It relishes in the bad and the ugly. It harbours prostitutes of the weirdest class, serial rapists as well as drug and alcoholic addicts.

 People, who live on the Old Ojo Road and its environs, pass through the gangway to the Agboju bus stop along Mile 2 – Bagary Expressway to catch vehicle to other parts of Lagos. At both sides of the dark alley are two long and windy face-me-I-face-you kind of structure with these daughters of eve dotting the many door posts displaying their wares.

For unsuspecting passersby, Itiro is home to retired prostitutes but an inquisitive mind would quickly come to terms with the fact that just within a stretch of the gangway is a sharp bend by your left if you went in through the Expressway and to your right if you went in through the Old Ojo road, which leads to another dark enclave where marijuana and other hard substances are freely consumed. A close source squealed that it is at the same dark spot where hard substances are sold and consumed that serial rapists also dissect their victims.

Of course, sale of alcoholic drink is an identity of such a place. After the boys have had enough dose of the hard substance, they would come out to the beer palour to empty a number of bottles of beer before patronising the whore. Beer is consumed mostly by men who go there to patronise the prostitutes. Only very few of the roughnecks who could afford the price beer consume it, otherwise majority go for hot dry gin, otherwise known as ‘kai kai’ in local parlance because it is very cheap. Others inhale substance they ignorantly refer to as ‘solution,’ which is highly intoxicating.

When our correspondent sauntered into the enclave pretending to be a passerby as his guide informed him, three haggard-looking and sexually-hungry old whores with flabby breasts closed in on him at once, displaying their age-long seductive antics.

Here, you have them in various ages, colours, shapes and sizes. You have the old and the young; the big and the small; the heavily breasted with hugely endowed buttocks, the tall and the short; the fair-skinned, dark-skinned or chocolate coloured; the old horse and the tenderfoot scrambling to stay afloat in the business. One of them was so daring that she was nudging this reporter with her nauseating and repugnant pair of breasts and signalling him into a cave-like room for business discussion. Though our correspondent was surprised, the action was not novel and so, he played along. The madam was shapeless, huge and tall with intimidating stretch marks on essential parts of her body. As she was busy twisting her waist psychedelically, displaying her flabby and stretch-marked breast, lubricating her lips in a sexually enticing manner and 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 into their charges, she told our correspondent that ‘pull clothes,’ that is complete nakedness would only cost N1000 while half nakedness with clothes on would cost a paltry N700. When our correspondent cried that the price was on too high, she came down to N500 and eventually volunteered to offer her services free if our correspondent did not have any cash, provided the rest of the negotiation was done inside her room. At this point, our correspondent was quick to sense danger and he asked the ‘old horse’ to give him some minutes to eat and come back for the real business. She obliged and this reporter briskly made to escape but that move was equally briskly aborted by another grandma who promptly accosted him. It was around 10:30am. This time, Clara as our correspondent later found her name to be didn’t waste any minute in telling him how she would give him any style he wanted. She said she was ready to take this reporter to ‘cloud 7’ and to show him that there are prostitutes but there are prostitutes. But when our correspondent wanted to know the state Clara came from as Calabar people are believed to be proficient in the act, she dismissed the belief as erroneous, saying that some Calabar 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.

When she was 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.”

When she suspected that this reporter might not have the N1000 she was demanding, she also volunteered to render free service to prove the old saying, “One good turn deserves another,” but this reporter quickly applied the 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?” Responding to that question, she said no but wondered how a young man like this reporter should be talking about death just because of simple early morning sex, which according to her should be the safest because at that time, the energy of every able-bodied young man ought to be at maximum, breakfast or no breakfast.

When our correspondent went back the second time around 7:30pm to observe night life at Itiro, another chapter was opened. The prostitutes were at their element. They displayed their entire arsenal except the ‘sacred forest,’ though strings of roads leading to the evil forest were not spared, all in a bid to lure men to bed and make some cool cash. Also, different shapes and sizes of breasts were on display. Some have very flat breasts that one would mistake them for men, if not for the skimpy pants they were putting on. Some have extra large loose boobs. Others have long paw-paw-like breasts with heavy stretch marks. Yet, others paraded seemingly standing breasts but on enquiry, they turned out to be false, papier-mâché breasts meant to hoodwink and attract customers. One of them came out with a heavily built ‘front arrows’ dangerously sprouting with the nipples pointing sharply, an indication that they were supported with groundnut as this reporter later found out.

It was also discovered that the prostitutes at Itiro also offer breast sucking for a token. Some men, investigation revealed, go there to suck breast only. It was further gathered that such men are either sterile; meaning their manhood cannot stand erect or they are afraid of sexually transmitted diseases. They would pay to suck breast and they are okay. To confirm this finding, this reporter approached one of them and demanded for breast-sucking only. The young fat woman in her 50s, who later gave her name as Rose demanded for N300 just for 10 minutes of breast-suck. Though according to her, they don’t like the idea of sucking their breast without doing the real thing but if that is what their customer wants, they would oblige so long as it would be paid for. According to her, they don’t like breast-suck alone for three reasons. One, the money is small. Two, it takes longer time. Three, it would cause emotional discomfort for them because they would have been taken to cloud 7 and ready for action only for their 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 i no dey pay big money. And i 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 Abgoju bus stop, said Itiro is small but mighty. He shared his experience on a particular day. According to him, “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, when one hefty woman just grabbed me by the waist from behind. Though it was about 8pm, I wrestled to extricate myself from her grips and I told her that I was a child of God. She called the attention of her colleagues and they were laughing and booing at me saying, “Pastor wey dey pass where Ashawo dey live, wetin I dey find; no be sex? And 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 hand side 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, Marijuana 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 who sells clothes at the Old Ojo Road side of Itiro said the class of prostitutes which Itiro parades are mostly grandma who are 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. For the old woman, she saw nothing wrong in the visit just as her daughter and husband did not see anything wrong in what the woman was doing but not Clement who saw everything wrong with such action.

Speaking about rape incident in the vicinity, a concerned person who lives in the neighbourhood told our correspondent that virtually every day, somebody would be raped there.

“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 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 place exists. There is no sign that such evil are 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 submitted.

Investigation revealed that aside prostitution and rape, another bad side of Itiro is drug business. Substances such as Marijuana or ‘Igbo’ in local parlance, Indian hemp as well as hot local gins (kai kai) are sold and consumed with reckless abandon; thus, making Itiro a breeding ground for criminals and also a criminal hide-out.

Checks also revealed that the police are aware of the place and the level of crime that go on there but chose to do nothing because they are also beneficiaries. It was learnt that each time they storm the place, they would be offered free sex, after which, they would look the other way. It was also learnt that sometimes, they would force the women to sleep with them or risk being arrested.

As for the drug peddlers, it was also discovered that they are allowed to carry on with their trade unhindered because most of the policemen consume the substance. When they go there, they would be offered the substance and some bottles of beer free of charge and with that, nobody disturbs them.

Facts also emerged that Itiro, as small, insignificant and obscure as it is, bubbles with activities round the clock. A source aptly captures Itiro 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.”