Asaba the capital of oil-rich Delta
State, is one of the fastest growing cities in Nigeria. Luxury hotels, palatial
mansions and shopping malls dot the landscape of the city, advertising its
status as the capital of one of Nigeria’s leading oil-bearing states.
However, like most cities the
world over, Asaba has its fair share of slums and shantytowns- the most notable
being Cable Point. And on the fringes of Cable Point is the popular Abraka
Market sometimes referred to as Hausa Market because of the huge number of
Hausa-Fulani and other people from the northern parts of Nigeria that ply their
wares in the market.
“Abraka Market” is not just a
market but a sprawling ghetto where several hundreds of people, mostly poor and
less privileged live. The market proper,
is what a casual and first time visitor sees when he walks into Abraka Market.
It is mainly a foodstuff market with mostly Hausa and Igbo traders selling
rice, beans, yams, onions, fruits, vegetable, etc. But when you walk deeper
into the market, you stumble into the residential side of Abraka Market and it
is a real ghetto in every sense of it.
The houses, arranged in rows
after rows, are mostly one-room shacks constructed with cheap corrugated metal,
plywood and tarpaulin. Heavily crowded, dirty and lacking in the most basic
amenities, this ghetto is home to perhaps some of the happiest Nigerians who despite
the palpable poverty that they live in, never fail to “bubble.” The dozens of
drinking joints, rundown restaurants, viewing centres, betting joints that dot
the place, are open to business almost 24/7.
A melting pot of sort, you will
find Nigerians from across the country but particularly from the Middle Belt
well represented here. It is a place where any homeless person from any part of
the country can easily get a roof over his head at least for a night.
However, one will not fail to
notice that the Hausa-Fulani have their own quarters in the ghetto. Their own
section is rather reserved and restricted with a part of it housing married
women only and a no-go-area to outsiders. You will also not find drinking
joints on this side of the ghetto.
But the larger and bubbling part
of Abraka Market is deeper inside and the population here is mixed: Middle
Belters, Igbos, Yorubas, Niger-Deltans, etc. This is the real Sodom where you
will encounter the drinking joints, viewing centres and indeed one of the
biggest sex market in Nigeria. Cheap prostitutes in their dozens living in
hole-sized rooms in several rows facing each other, can be seen soliciting
customers even in the early hours of the morning. And by night, it is one of
the hottest and raunchiest red-light districts in Nigeria where booze, fuck and
merriment reign supreme.
The bulk of the prostitutes are
from the Middle Belt particular Benue State. In fact any visitor will easily
hear Tivi Language being spoken by many of the call girls all over the place. Recent
security challenges in the Benue Valley is believed to have swelled the
population of Benue girls here as more and more people flee the region to other
places for safety and survival.
Sex here is cheap and as low as
N500 or less for short time. But the
girls have classes. Girls from the South-East who seem cleaner, prettier and
more enlightened, charge higher than the Middle Belt girls do. Ditto for
Akwa-Cross and the few Edo-Delta girls here. There is indeed some sort of
distrust among the girls as verified by our reporter, with the latter accusing
Middle Belt girls (Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, etc) of “spoiling market,” with
low charges.
Nevertheless, there are enough
customers to go round. The Abraka Market serves as a terminal-point for trucks
bringing foodstuffs from the North to the Delta side of the South-South. The
implication is that dozens of truck drivers and their “motor boys” converge on
the market every day. They form the bulk of the patrons of the Abraka Market’s
red-light district. Some of the call girls confided in our reporter that the
lorry drivers pay good money especially when they meet a girl they like and who
gives them what they want.
Amaka, an Igbo call girl who
spoke with our correspondent said she is not bothered by the low charges by
some girls because she has her special customers who are mainly lorry drivers
and they pay her well because she satisfies them and give them what they like.
Most of the truck drivers we learnt, used to sleep overnight with their
favourite call girls and some of them can pay as much as ten to fifteen
thousand naira to pass the night and get fucked to their satisfaction. “Those wey dey collect five hundred naira,
make dem dey collect,” Amaka fumed. “I no care becos I get my customers wey I
dey target. Dem dey pay me wetin I want and I dey satisfy dem,” she stated.
Be informed also that Hausa
ladies are in prostitution too in the Abraka Market and they have their own
section. Our investigation reveals that they are mostly widows, divorcees or
runaway housewives who came down South to seek greener pastures. Interestingly,
most of their patrons are Hausa-Fulani men especially the young, single and
ubiquitous ones doing menial jobs in town or selling one stuff or the other on
wheelbarrows.
Patrons of the Abraka sex market
equally come from inside Asaba and Onitsha as well. Separated only by the River
Niger, the two cities of Onitsha and Asaba fondly called the twin cities, are
quite close and it takes just one hundred or at most two hundred naira to take
a bus from Bridge Head/Upper Iweka in Onitsha to Abraka Market in Asaba. Many
patrons simply jump into a bus in Onitsha and in few minutes, they are at the
Abraka Market in Asaba to take advantage of the cheap sex and the seclusion of
the place to have a quick fuck and dash back to Onitsha.
Despite the odd-mix of people and
the many contradictions of the Abraka sex market, residents vow that it is a
peaceful place where people cohabit and do their own thing. For a ghetto of
this size, crime is low as attested to by law enforcement officers. Perhaps
because of the low crime rate, visits and raids by law enforcement officers are
rare. Both patrons and prostitutes say there is little or no police harassment
nor extortion which is one of the things that they like about the place. At the
front of the Abraka Market however, a police armored vehicle and patrol van are
always stationed there in an apparent show of police physical presence and perhaps
to swiftly quell any ugly incident that could arise especially one bothering on
inter-ethnic clashes.
All told, this sex market that is
bigger than the Mabushi sex market in Abuja, is worth visiting if not to have
fun, at least for sightseeing. It is another world altogether.
UPDATE:
