About 34 women are in the grips of the law for engaging in prostitution in the Tema Metropolis.

The brief facts indicate that some young ladies have been parading the streets of the Tema Metropolis at night soliciting clients for prostitution.

The Tema Regional Police Command organised an intelligence-led operation to bring sanity into the metropolis.

The operation led to the arrest of the sex workers which included Ghanaians, Liberians and Nigerians at Subon Valley at Community 7.

Others were also arrested at Sabrina Hotel at Community 17 as well as in Viena City and Datus area both in Community Eight.

Investigations disclosed that the accused persons have been operating as prostitutes whose modus operandi was to stand at street corners and make faces at men, smiled at them and made gestures with their mouths to obtain clients for prostitution.

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After investigations, the accused persons were charged with the offence and arraigned before the court on Tuesday where each was granted bail of GHC5, 000 with two sureties, one to be justified.

However, the Police ordered to authenticate the identity of each of the accused persons before bail can be considered.

They are to reappear in court on 15th March 2023.

The hookers, aged between 15 and 30, operate in small wooden structures erected within the market. They are of Nigerian, Burkinabe, Togolese and Beninese nationality. 

Nii Aryee Armah Okropong, a sub-chief of Joma, told journalists that the prostitutes brought their clients to the temporary structures in the market during day and night, thereby causing a nuisance and discomfort to traders and buyers. 

The traditional ruler said he delegated some elders to talk to the hookers to stop their illegal business at the market, but the pimps and their bodyguards chased them away with dangerous weapons.

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“The brain behind the construction of the Joma Market, near Ablekuma is being defeated because the prostitutes have now taken over the place with their sex business,” the chief lamented. 

He said the residents of the area have stopped patronising the market and would rather travel to Awoshie and Lapaz markets to purchase basic food items. 

The visibly worried traditional ruler also alleged that the hookers had been attacking and robbing residents of their monies and other valuable items during the night. 

The chief described the situation as very worrying and appealed to the Inspector-General of Police and the Minister of the Interior to conduct a swoop to arrest the prostitutes. 

“We’re making efforts to develop Joma and so we don’t want anybody or group of people to thwart our efforts,” Nii Aryee Armah Okropong said. 

Their arrest follows intelligence reports of the commercial sex activities within the Municipality being a precursor to many other criminal activities such as break-ins, robbery and the recent incidents of murder within the Municipality.

The suspects whose ages range from 20 to 35 include eleven foreigners and a Ghanaian.

They are; Flourish Sampson 25, Gifty Blessing 26, Gloria John 25, Blessing Sunday 23, Sonia Asare 24, Chiamaka Okulen 23, Tosin Deli Ada 35, Rachael Francis 24, Grace Paul 28, Annabel John 20, Juliet Chiamaka 25 and Joy Tin 20.

They were arrested at Mirage Pub and will be screened and those found culpable will be put before court.

The operation will be sustained to weed out such elements from the region as a means to minimise the incidence of violent crimes.

The man, who is yet to be identified, is alleged to have been in a brawl with one of the night workers after he supposedly refused to pay for the bedroom service rendered to him.

It is reported that the sex worker recruited some of her colleagues who helped her assault the man, leading to his death.

Realising the severity of the act, the sex workers are said to have fled the scene. Police were alerted of the ordeal.

The house where the incident happened has since been locked up after police picked up suspects.

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One of the workers, believed to be the main suspect, and her physically challenged landlord, have been arrested and detained at the Sunyani District Police station.

Meanwhile, the body of the deceased has been sent to Sunyani Regional Hospital morgue pending investigations.

Head of the Public Affairs Unit of the Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Effia Tenge told the Ghana News Agency that the five-hour operation took place at Pokuase Timber Market on May 20, 2021.

She said the operation was done in collaboration with the Ga North and West Immigration officers, NADMO personnel and task force from the Ga North Municipal Assembly, assisted by police personnel from the Amasaman Divisional Headquarters and Adjen Kotoku District.

The exercise was based on intelligence to arrest commercial sex workers and destroy their unauthorised habitats, which mostly accommodated drug dealers, robbers and minors used in sexual exploitation.

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The operation also saw the demolishing of several unauthorised wooden structures inhabited by commercial sex workers mostly Nigerian nationals and a few Ghanaians.

DSP Tenge said the suspects would be screened and the foreigners handed to the Immigration Service for deportation, while the others would be investigated and put before the law courts if found culpable.

They were made up of Ghanaians and other nationals from Togo, Benin, and Nigeria.

Items found on them included 33 motorbikes, 38 rubbers of dried leaves suspected to be India hemp, cash of GH₵6,750.00, a Beninese passport, health insurance card, an ATM card, and 153 assorted mobile phones.

Speaking to journalists, the Director of Operations, ACP Arhin Kwesi Annor said the operation commenced around 11 pm on Thursday, April 15, 2021, to 2 am on Friday, April 16, 2021.

“So for the past two weeks we have been monitoring their activities, and then yesternight we decided to swoop on them. Fortunately, when we went there we were able to arrest some people or some suspected criminals. The total number of suspects that were arrested is 230”, he said.

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“We believe that some of these motorbikes are used to commit a lot of crimes. You can talk about snatching of mobile phone, snatching of bags among others”, he added.

He said the suspects will be screened and those found culpable will be dealt with.

He said such an operation, will be replicated to curb crime in the city.

Pandemic-related hotel closures in the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte have forced thousands of prostitutes to solicit for clients on the street, they say.

“We are in the front line, moving the economy and we are at risk,” Cida Vieira, president of the Association of Prostitutes of Mins Gerais state, told AFP news agency.

“We need to get vaccinated.”

Vieira and other women held a protest on Monday in a street lined with shuttered hotels where they used to work, waving placards bearing messages like ‘Sex workers are health professionals too’ and ‘Sex workers are a priority group.

“We are part of the priority group because we deal with various types of people and our lives are at risk, said Lucimara Costa,” one of the sex workers protesting said..

“We are a priority group, we are health educators, peer educators. We form part of that group, since we give information about STIs for men, distribute condoms…’ said Vieira.

The Brazilian government has prioritised health workers, teachers, the elderly, indigenous people and people with underlying health conditions for the first round of vaccinations.

It hopes to vaccinate these priority groups, some 77 million people, in the first half of 2021, but experts say the process may drag into September due to a shortage of doses.

Like the rest of Brazil, Minas Gerais state has been battling a second pandemic wave, but the number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, at 121, is among the lowest in the country.

The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed more than 332,000 lives in Brazil, a toll second only to the United States.

On Tuesday, Brazil recorded 86,979 new cases.

For the first time, more than 4,000 deaths were recorded in a single day with 4,195 reported.

The suspects were apprehended with quantities of condoms in areas such as Togo Embassy and Osu Oxford Street.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Accra Regional Police Command, DSP Effia Tenge, disclosed this to the Ghanaian Times in Accra, stating that they are in custody assisting in investigations.

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She said on September 7, between the 11:30pm and 1:30 am, the Cantonments Police Command embarked on an operation to clamp down on activities of commercial sex workers indulging in alleged immoral activities within the Cantonments enclave.

DSP Tenge said the activities of the suspects were importuning for immoral purpose contrary to section 275 of Criminal Offence Act 1960, Act 29.

She said seven of the suspects, who were arrested earlier on September 4, 2020, have since been arraigned, adding that the others were being processed for court.

Chitalu Chilufya said 76 of 85 new reported cases in the northern town were either sex workers or lorry drivers.

“Sex workers have been very co-operative and they are giving us all the leads we want,” Mr Chilufya said.

Zambia has confirmed 267 Covid-19 infections, with seven deaths.

Last week, President Edgar Lungu announced the reopening of restaurants, casinos and gyms after a month-long shutdown to enforce social distancing measures.

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“The situation in Nakonde remains grave, and the president is concerned,” Mr Chilufya said on Sunday, adding that Mr Lungu had ordered the border to be “temporarily closed.”

Nakonde streets are usually lined by lorries leaving Zambia or entering from neighbouring Tanzania, the BBC’s Kennedy Gondwe in Lusaka reports.

Lorry drivers are seen as a high-risk group because they stop at several towns along the way and are known to have multiple sex partners, he added.

“They [sex workers] are being very co-operative in our investigations, and we don’t want to stigmatise or discriminate against them. They are being very useful in contact tracing,” Mr Chilufya said.

“We had a case where one of them appeared with symptoms and told us about a client who was a lorry driver of foreign jurisdiction and even gave us a contact number. We called that number and we were told the person we called had Covid-19,” the minister added.

Health authorities in East Africa have expressed concern that lorry drivers, listed as essential workers, could be spreading coronavirus.

Strict checks, including tests by Ugandan authorities, have caused long tailbacks at its border with Kenya.

Joy News’ reporter Nana Yaw Gyimah said the suspects are being screened for processing before a court.

The Regional Police Command has explained the exercise forms part of its strategies to rid the metropolis of criminals.

Regional Police chief, COP Ken Yeboah told the media Thursday, the operation was the biggest swoop ever done in the metropolis.

He said 35 female suspects believed to be commercial sex workers have been handed over to the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit for further investigations.

At least five of the male suspects who were found in possession of substances suspected to be Indian hemp have been handed over to the Drug Law Enforcement Unit, he added.

1. Ashanti Central Division – One hundred and two (102) suspects were arrested at Pampaso, PZ area, Ahodwo, Adam, Railways, Columbia and Kenyase-Abirem.

2. Asokwa Division – Eighty-six (86) were rounded up at Ashfo BB, Neoplan station and Sokoban Wood Village.

3. Manhyia Division – Twenty-six (26) suspects were picked up at Alaba, Tinker Island, Affordable Housing and Akwatia-Line.

4. Ejisu Division – Sixteen (16) suspects were rounded up at Besease, Ejisu Zongo, Abenase and Onwie.

5. Tafo-Pankrono Division- Nine (9) suspects were also rounded up at Pankrono, Ahwiaa and Moshie Zongo.

6. Suame Division – Six (6) suspects were rounded up at Kotoko.

Some of the suspects are reported to be Nigerians, a development COP Yeboah has revealed he will inform the Nigerian High Commission about it for remedy.

He indicated he will be meeting the Nigerian High Commissioner in Ghana on Friday, for discussions about the conduct of their nationals.

“Most of my clients are young boys who normally want to sample the Magogos [old women]. We give them the best such that they continue to come back with their money,” said Mutasa during a tour of the Booster area sponsored by the National Aids Council (NAC).
Her old face was heavily powdered, with dark eyebrows, but the artificial look could not hide her age.
Even the way she walks tells that she has seen many battles and has slept with many men for a living.
“I know how to handle a client better than these young girls. Even my bed is smart and I know how to wash myself, clean my private parts to the satisfaction of my clients, hence I have survived in this game,” Mutasa said.
Her body looks wasted but the make-up on her face tells a different story — a granny refusing to retire from the world’s oldest profession.
“If I retire, who will take care of me? My daughter is also in it trying to keep herself going. I have been in this trade for over 30 years,” she said.
“I started it after my husband, now late, cheated on me long back and we divorced.
“I had no option but to look for something that could sustain me.
“Indeed, this thing [private part] is gold, it’s a gold mine and I have sustained my family,” Mutasa told the journalists who were visiting sex workers with NAC officials.
However, Mutasa and other sex workers in Epworth are suffocating under the liquidity crunch that has dogged the economy since 2015.
At times they go without a cent or are forced to drop their charges to as low as $0.30 so that they can at least buy something to eat.
“Things are hard these days. We are struggling although we are accepting payments through EcoCash. It’s cold out there,” she lamented.
“At times we go for days without getting anything. We have men who are willing to pay as little as 30c for short time, just imagine.”
At the time of the visit, Mutasa was nursing an injury. She claimed a client who wanted a price reduction burnt her thighs.
“Look at my thighs, they were burnt by some men who wanted me to reduce the price to 30 cents and I refused,” she said.
“While I was negotiating, one of them took a burning log and shoved it between my legs. I am thankful to God, the log did not reach my private parts. It is very bad.”
Mutasa said these days, due to the injury, it was her daughter who was active on the market to sustain the family. They share a single room, which is divided by a curtain to give a semblance of privacy to their various clients.
“She will be with her client on the other side and I will also be entertaining mine on the other side,” she said.
“We are just trying to make ends meet, otherwise morally it’s bad, but we have no option,” she said, much to the amusement of the journalists before her colleagues broke into song and dance singing mwana wehure akangofanana namai wacho kana pachikapa [a prostitute’s child is just like the mother when it comes to sexual performance].

 
But does she love the job? “Not because it’s nice, but because I have to take care of the family.”
Mutasa believes older sex workers are in a better position to negotiate for safe sex and prevent the spread of HIV and Aids.
“We have realised that most of these teenage sex workers are unable to negotiate for safe sex and in the end they expose themselves to HIV and Aids,” she said.
With the help of Springs of Life Zimbabwe and NAC, the sex workers at Booster have a policy which they have amplified into a slogan, “no condom, no sex, or more condoms, more sex” as they push for safe sex.
“We get regular HIV and Aids services from Springs of Life and NAC and we appreciate that,” Mutasa said.
But we are worried that these young sex workers, the teenagers, are failing to negotiate for safe sex. They are doing it for as little as 10c at times.
“We have realised that most men are going for them, thereby exposing these girls to diseases,” Mutasa said.
“They know that we are able to control and negotiate for protected sex, hence they avoid us.
“The funny part is that young boys come to us because they want our experience and tidiness and old men want the little girls.”
In a country where unemployment levels are hovering at around 90%, there has been an increase in sex workers.
Springs of Life co-ordinator, Precious Msindo said her organisation was worried about the rise in child prostitution in Epworth.
“It’s a pity that we have an increasing number of child sex workers, school dropouts, with some being as young as 12 years,” she said.
“The most unfortunate part is their failure to negotiate for safe sex and fight abuse from the older ones.
“As an organisation, we assist them through spiritual mentorship, but more needs to be done.”
As prostitution seems to be thriving, debate is high on whether Zimbabwe should legalise it and set operating rules so that sex workers are protected from abuse.
Proponents of the legalisation of sex work argue that this will sanitise the industry and protect women from abuse they go through as commercial sex work would be institutionalised.
NAC information officer, Tadiwa Pfupa said engagements with sex workers in Epworth and other hot spots would help reduce the HIV prevalence rate.
“The worry from NAC’s perspective is the issue of teenage sex workers who are unable to negotiate for safe sex. That is a big worry,” she said.
Epworth has been named among the top 10 hot spots for HIV infection in the country, with the Booster area being the prime spot due to the high population of sex workers in the vicinity.
Statistics from NAC show that in the second quarter of 2017, Epworth and Ruwa, with a population of 37 993, recorded 1 474 sexually transmitted disease cases and has a 15% prevalence rate higher than the national average of 14%.
*Not her real name

Some concerned citizens who spoke to Today on condition of anonymity said, “these foreign commercial sex workers are normally brought in by their male counterparts who act as their pimps.

They normally charge between GH¢500 and GH¢ 1000 from their clients who are mostly foreigners and indigenous galamsey operators”.

What the residents claimed to be more worrying was that some military personnel believed to have been deployed from Takoradi were allegedly providing 24 hour security for these commercial sex workers.

Our source said some hotels in the Western regional capital have virtually been turned into brothels to harbour these sex workers.

“The Wassa Akropong township has virtually turned into a Chinese town as night clubs, bar and pubs, game and bet centers, grocery shops and supermarkets have bill boards with Chinese inscriptions embossed on them”, the source added.

Some residents who declined to disclose their identities lamented the moral decadence the activities of the Chinese have brought on the region.

source: today