In Jahi 1, a satellite community, situated behind the popular Next Cash and Carry supermarket in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), there exists a refreshment centre known to residents simply as Forest. PAUL OKAH visited the Forest and writes on the immoral activities thriving there.
Except you indicate interest and you are told, you will never know about the existence of a refreshment centre behind Next Cash and Carry in Jahi 1, a satellite community in the FCT, simply known to the residents as Forest.
The spot is made up of tall Gmelina and cashew trees that serve as shades to more than fifty businessmen and women that operate bars, restaurants and other businesses.
Structures here have the same pattern and are erected for easy dismantling. Blocks are used to form the foundation of the structures, while the rest are just woods, zinc or tarpaulin for roof/body. There are provisions for customers to ease themselves when pressed and also to charge their devices.
Save for extra observant visitors, one hardly notices many sexual activities that take place here.
Nocturnal businesses
To many of the visitors, the Forest is especially active at nights, though customers usually start arriving at the spot in the afternoon.
Owners of shops in the Forest use the morning hours to clean up the mess of the previous night and then put things in place for customers that are expected to start arriving in the afternoon. This is so as not to miss out on the activities in the evening, especially if there is a live football match, when customers besiege the place to drink, smoke while watching their favourite teams play.
Visitors
Here at Jahi 1 Forest, there is no class restriction as the rich and poor, honest and dishonest people, old and young congregate for different objectives – legal or illegal.
The spot forms a meeting point for business partners, football lovers, young lovers, married men/ women aiming to cheat on their spouses, prostitutes, gigolos, lesbians, gays and those that come here to relax after the day’s toils or to make a sex date.
It is common place to see lesbians and gays fondling each other unashamedly or sometimes under the cover of darkness or dull light used by beer parlour operators.
Some customers linger over a bottle of beer, which they use to negotiate for sex or watch football matches without being inconvenienced, as business owners frown upon loiterers.
Also, waitresses and business women here dress in skimpy or in revealing attires, perhaps in a bid to attract customers. Many of the female operators ooze sex appeal and are so free with their male customers that one may not be wrong to assume that they may abandon their businesses to offer themselves to their customers if the prize was big enough.
Activities
Apart from people engaging in the buying and selling of fast foods, more than ten restaurants are operated by women in the Forest, where delicacies of different types are prepared for customers willing to eat before drinking.
However, traders are usually inconvenienced whenever it starts to rain. To address this issue, many of them erect wooden structures to shelter customers, whereas a greater percentage of business owners make use of the open space.
Having flat-screen televisions and sound system is a must for anyone willing to start a restaurant or beer parlour business here, as business owners in the forest aim to outdoor one another in noisemaking. It is a culture to many of them to buy giant speakers and tune their music to the highest volume and create all sorts of cacophony in a bid to attract customers.
Girls who have no time to cook come to the forest to buy take away food or anyone feeling lonely at home come here to get entertainment as passersby or drinking customers provide enough entertainment to visitors.
Hawking
Apart from many people operating beer parlours here, hawkers of different wares and edibles throng the place. They range from sellers of foot wears, clothing, jewelry, fried meat, and condoms to edibles. Customers need not worry about visiting the market or shopping malls to make purchases as many things they need are readily brought to them by hawkers.
Also, famished lovers need not worry about the strength to carry out sexual escapades, as many people in the Forest make brisk businesses providing fast food such as noodles or hot tea to interested customers. Not to be left out, haggard-looking people also come here to beg for alms.
Waitresses
In the refreshment spot, it is difficult to differentiate between a waitress and a prostitute, as many of them use the opportunity of serving you to indicate their availability in case you need sexual services.
On one of the evenings when this reporter visited the spot, he requested to know from a beer parlour owner, who gave his name simply as Chinedu, if there were prostitutes around. He answered in the affirmative, stressing that they are everywhere in the Forest and asked if he should invite one for this reporter.
When this reporter gave him the nod, Chinedu’s attention was immediately attracted by a customer requesting for a chilled bottle of beer. However, once out of earshot, a girl in her early twenties, who was helping him serve customers, approached this reporter to offer her sexual services.
After serving this reporter with a bottle of beer, the waitress, who introduced herself as Blessing from Anambra state, said she was available if needed for sexual service.
When this reporter inquired about the room where the sexual exchange will take place, she said he can take her to his apartment to spend the night for N5, 000, as a lodging regularly used by prostitutes around the area was situated within her area and she did not want her sister to see her doing it there.
However, she suddenly turned hostile when this reporter said he could only afford N1, 000, instead of the N5, 000 she had asked for as she said she could not go lower than N3, 000.
“Why do you think that N5, 000 is too much, when you will ravish me the whole night? Who knows how many times you will do it before dawn, yet you want to be stingy. If you are serious, you can pay N3, 000 then wait for me to close by 10pm so that we can go to your place,” she said.
However, when this reporter agreed to pay the N3,000 for her to spend the night with him, she gave him her contact address and instructed for him to call her by 10pm when she must have closed for the night, with a revelation that she would leave his house by 5am the next day.
After obtaining the required information, this reporter went to bed forgetting the whole business and did not see her the following day when he visited the Forest to continue with his investigations.
Proliferation of prostitutes
Apart from Blessing, checks by this reporter revealed that many of the waitresses here at Forest are ready to offer sex in exchange for money, no matter how ugly or beautiful the parties may be.
When Blueprint Weekend visited Nwanyi Nsukka restaurant run by a lady from Nsukka in Enugu state on Sunday, June 2, this year, a waitress in her thirties, who introduced herself as Rita from Ogoja in Cross River state, agreed readily to a sexual relationship with this reporter, despite claiming that she has a boyfriend and also meeting him for the first time.
Similarly, at Austin Cool Spot, a 23-year-old waitresses, who introduced herself as Faith or Ginika from Enugu state, who grew up in Kaduna state, said her boyfriend was residing in Port Harcourt, but that she was willing to have a sexual relationship with this reporter.
Asked how she has been able to manage the two relationships and her job as a waitress, she said she comes to the shop from Jahi 2 by 9am each day and closes by 10pm, but that she has to supplement her N15, 000 monthly income.
“It’s no big deal, we can meet before I come to the shop at 9am or when I close by 10pm, it is just for us to communicate through the phone. Though I have a boyfriend staying in Port Harcourt, I have to sort out myself here. N15, 000 cannot even take care of me for a week let alone a month, so I have to hustle,” she said.
“I didn’t come to Abuja to count houses,” a waitress, Mary from Zamfara state, told this reporter when he inquired during a conversation whether she can have a sexual relationship with him.
Mary, a short girl, who can pass for a midget or pigmy when standing beside this reporter, said, like Ginika, she comes to work in the Forest from Jahi 2 and has to supplement her salary by offering sexual services to willing customers.
She said, “What you should know is that girls have needs. I started work here just yesterday, but there is no way N15, 000 can take care of me for a month. If you say you want me, no problem, but you have to pay me very well. I didn’t come to Abuja to waste my time; I came to hustle like my mates.”
Playing safe
When business becomes slow for prostitutes in a low-class brothel located just a few metres from the Forest, they come here for possible patronage. Some of the prostitutes thronging the place usually have steady customers and can agree to be taken home by men for an agreed sum, especially if they are familiar with such men.
On one occasion when this reporter was introduced by the owner of one of the beer parlours, one of the prostitutes in her early thirties, who identified herself as Rita, admitted that was ready for a sexual transaction.
She said this reporter can go with her to her room in the brothel for N500 ‘short time.’ However, after peering into the face of this reporter for recognition and failing, she backed out of a suggestion to follow him to his house for N2, 000, with the excuse that she was coming back, but went to join a group in another table.
Unclean environment
Discouragingly, a refuse dump is situated within metres of the forest, from where odour emanates to inconvenience fun-seekers in the forest. The refuse dump site situated just behind Next Cash and Carry is usually avoided by motorists who have the intention of accessing the forest.
In order to avoid the poignant smell from the dump sites, motorists access the forest through Jahi junction and then pack their vehicle in any available space, whereas pedestrians and motorcyclists use the pathway where they cover their noses with handkerchiefs when passing through the dump site.
Waste products and dirty water are disposed inside uncompleted buildings around the Forest, as the dump site is usually too unattractive for the business operators to approach.
Perhaps, a positive is the availability of motorcyclists or okada at any time of the day or night that the lovers must have concluded their negotiations to either go home or to De Camp David Guest House for a sex romp.
De Camp David connection
De Camp David is two-bedroom flat converted into a guest house, which is situated beside Jahi 1 Forest. Here, lovers have the privilege of exhausting their lust for N2, 000 per hour or N4, 000 per night.
The flat, containing eighth rooms, has the paraphernalia required for comfort of lodgers, including air conditioners and condoms placed on the table for the lodger.
Prostitutes are not allowed to hang around the guest house, but can be invited to “entertain” a lodger on his request.
In a chat with Blueprint Weekend, the manager of the guest house, who identified himself simply as Innocent, said he has the contacts of many prostitutes and can invite them at short notice if this reporter was interested.
“We try our best to provide comfort to lodgers here. There is steady power supply. If you need a woman to spend the night with, I can call one to meet you. The price is N2, 000 per hour or N4, 000 if you want to spend the night. You can then decide on what to pay the girl. Our own here is to provide accommodation,” he said.
Interestingly, when this reporter came back for more assessment of the rooms, after excusing himself earlier on purportedly to reflect on the wide range of services offered to customers, the manager appeared not to be in the right frame of mind to negotiate for a reduction.
After a satisfactory assessment of the rooms and requesting for the manager to contact any of the prostitutes for a possible sexual exchange, the manager claimed that he has lost his phone and couldn’t possibly contact the girls.
He directed this reporter to the Forest, saying he can negotiate with girls there then bring any of them back to the guest house, as he was confused about his missing phone, which he said will affect his business.
“I have been searching for my phone for the past few minutes. I seem to have misplaced it. The problem is that I have the contacts of the girls on my phone, so it is going to affect my business as there is no other way I can contact them. You can go to Forest to pick any of the girls and bring here, I want to search for my phone.
“Perhaps, somebody took it when I was busy inside, I just don’t know. I don’t even have the number offhand for you to call to know where it may be. In any case, you can see the rooms. They are all the same, so you can come whenever you need comfort. As I told you before, it is just N2, 000 per hour or N4, 000 if you want to spend the night with your girl. It is not negotiable and you pay upfront. See you whenever you are ready,” he said.
DPO, a regular visitor
When this reporter inquired about the safety of the Forest, one of the operators, Chinedu, said there is no form of harassment of business operators or customers alike.
He said the DPO of Jahi 1 police station visits the spot on daily basis, which is a pointer to the fact that their businesses are legal. He also denied making any payment to the police as security levy.
However, when this reporter visited the Jahi 1 police station to confirm the allegation of the DPO being a regular in the Forest, he was told by officers on duty that the DPO was not on seat. Further efforts to get his reaction proved abortive, as he neither responded to text messages put through to his phone nor took calls.
