Operatives of Eagle
Crack Squad of the Rivers State Police Command, acting on a tip-off, stormed a
hotel located at Mile 1, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, and busted a
prostitution ring run by a 44-year-old kingpin identified as Esther Isama.
The operation
liberated some teenagers, aged 13 to 15, who had passed through harrowing
experiences ranging from being locked up in a hotel against their will to being
forced to take an oath to being coerced into drug abuse and paid sex while
their captor was smiling daily to the bank.
The long arm of the
law caught up with the “Evil Madame” who is presently a guest of the police.
Rivers State
Commissioner of Police, Mustapha Dan Daura confirmed the hotel manager was also
arrested.
Saturday Sun spoke
with two of the rescued victims. From Favour Onagbor, 13, an indigene of Imo
State, came this startling testimony: “Our mama (Esther Isama) came and
deceived my parents that she would take us away from the village to Port
Harcourt to give us a job in a restaurant. When we got to Port Harcourt, it was
a different story. She introduced us to prostitution.”
According to her, they
were pressured to make a return of N8, 000 daily from sleeping with as many men
as possible. “Mama would starve us for six days. She would keep us locked
inside the room. She gave us Tramadol to use before the men were brought in to
have sex with us,” she alleged.
She also claimed some of them fainted during
long sex sessions.
A second victim,
Vivian Og- bonna, 14, also from Imo State, also corroborated that they were
lured from their parents with the promise of a greener pasture only to be
forced into prostitution. She also corroborated that “any day we didn’t bring
money for her, she would starve us of food for days.”
She dropped a
bombshell when she claimed their private parts and armpits were shaved and the
hair taken to a herbalist’s shrine for some black magic to keep them
“padlocked” so they could not escape from the hotel and the prostitution ring.
As if that was not frightening enough, they were also forced to swear an oath,
she claimed.
Esther Isama did not
deny the allegations when she spoke with Saturday Sun. A native of Awa Village
in Ugwuta Local Government Area of Imo State, Isama admitted that she specialised
in recruiting underage girls, mostly aged 13 to 15, into her prostitution ring.
“I usually deceive
their parents in the village that I have jobs for their girls in a big
restaurant. I usually went to Imo, Akwa Ibom and Anambra states to scout for
the girls. I promised to give them jobs in Port-Harcourt”.
Once they reached Port
Harcourt, she showed her true colour to the naïve girls. “I usually camp them
in the hotel where I introduced them to prostitution. I gave them a condition
that they must meet a target of N8, 000 daily, failure of which they would be
starved for some days. To make it easier for them, I gave them Tramadol and I
took the men to them for sex.”
Isama did not also
refute the allegation of rituals and the use of diabolical powers against her
victims. “When some of the girls were asleep, I shaved their private parts and
armpits and took the hair to the shrine of a herbalist to ‘padlock’ them so
that they would not be able to run away,” she stated.
The woman who admitted
“making money through them,” also confessed to have recruited over 15 girls.
Eventually, some of
the girls escaped from the hotel and alerted the public, prompting detectives
to storm the hotel and consequently arresting the organisers of the racket
Isama understood her
precarious position. She told Saturday Sun: “I have confessed everything to the
police.”