A socialite, identified simply as Madam Success, has been accused by four teenage students of forcing them to sleep with no fewer than five men daily and get paid N400 for the day.
The students, aged between 13 and 15, alleged that the socialite collects between N1,000 and N2,000 from each of the men.
According to available information from the office of the Anambra State Commissioner for Women and Children Welfare, Ify Obinabo, the students were lured from Akwa Ibom State to Agbor in Delta State with a promise to get them jobs as house helps.
However, on getting to Onitsha in Anambra State, Madam success kept them in a park, where they served as prostitutes.
The Media Assistant to Obinabo, Chidimma Ikeanyionwu, told newsmen that the commissioner, working with the police, stormed a motor park in Onitsha on a tip-off and rescued the girls.
In a statement, Ikeanyionwu disclosed that Madam Success was arraigned before the Children, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Magistrates’ Court in Awka, Anambra State and remanded in prison for allegedly luring four female students into prostitution in Delta State.
The defendant was arraigned on Friday before a Magistrates Court.
She was denied bail by the court and ordered remanded in prison.
The students told newsmen that Madam Success made them promises of jobs before they left the comfort of their homes.
One of them said: “Auntie Success told us that she had job opportunities for us in Agbor, Delta State, where we would be selling drinks in a beer parlour, but on getting there, we discovered that it was prostitution work she brought us to do.
“The men paid the sum of N1,000 or N2,000 directly to our madam, who only gave us N400 every day for feeding.
“The direct payment to Madam Success made it difficult for us to have any cash at hand.
“These dresses (skimpy clothes) were bought for us from the proceeds paid to our madam.”
The girls, who claimed that it was in their quest to secure their school fees that they got lured into the act, maintained that they had made several unsuccessful attempts to escape, but were always caught and punished severely.
One of them said: “After the punishment, we were taken to a herbalist, who forced us to take an oath that we would never run away or we would die.”