There are few things as scandal inducing to the average person than learning about a prostitution ring. It is a confluence of sexual assault, the coercion of a person without the aptitude to make certain decisions, promiscuity, sexual activity and slavery. Thanks to modern media, the images we have of forced prostitution are often those of women who through their actions agree to unreasonable agreements in exchange for a better life and are swindled into forced prostitution. We appropriate some of the blame of the victims of these rings and say, “if you hadn’t been so greedy for some life other than the one that was handed to you, you’d still be suffering but you would have your freedom and sexual autonomy”. But the reality is that forced prostitution rings are often populated by underaged girls, who do not have the prerequisite emotional intelligence to discern the true motives behind actions of the men who convince or coerce them into sex work. This is what TheCable NG found when it underwent a long term investigation into the rumours about a prostitution ring in Federal Government Girls College Langtang Jos.

According to the Cable NG’s report the first allegations of students being pimped out to strangers were levelled not against the security guard who became the subject of their actual investigation, but a teacher in the school. The allegations, first reported to the FGGC Langtang Old Girl’s association suggested that a male teacher was soliciting the girls himself and then farming them out to older men. The Old Girl’s Association was unable however, to gain any traction when they decided to independently investigate the allegations, the school authority refused to offer any real help, resorting instead to bureaucracy and ambivalent statements. The association wasn’t able to get any of the victims to come forward either, a development they have blamed on the culture of silence (we will get to that later). They were also unable to substantiate claims from students that teachers were coercing students into inappropriate intimate and sexual relationships and abusing their authority over the students.

The Cable NG’s actual investigation is quite harrowing. The undercover reporter who covered the story, posed as a business man looking to find a teenage sexual companion and was able to record his conversation with the ‘pimp’ who was farming out these girls, one of the school’s security guards hired to chaperone the girls and ensure that none leave the school premises when the girls are under the guidance of the school. The guard reveals the complex system in which the ring operates, with the guard acting as a pimp/middle man for SS2 and SS3 students whom he connects to adult johns* after collecting a commission and facilitating for the students to be able to sneak out of the hostels to meet their johns. He speaks on how the girls often take charge and are in involved in the process of picking which johns they eventually engage in sex with. The guard suggests that he and the girls being solicited never meet the john together, a precaution in case the john in question is not who he says he is.

The investigation also reveal the rot that has eaten into the school; corrupt officials who collect millions of naira for developmental projects but do not execute, nonchalant staff who have allowed the injustices against the students continue, and a system of transactional sex that allows the abusers of students justify their actions and a federal government ministry that simply refuses to acknowledge that misconduct is happening under its nose. Few things illustrate just how disinterested in the unsettling events happening at the college than the current principal’s response to the Cable NG’s report.

“I am a civil servant. I would advise that you speak to the ministry of education in Abuja,” Laura Dogo, the new principal, said when asked to comment on the various issues. She refused to entertain further questions.

FGGC Langtang is just a microcosm of a system of exploitation that is happening in many schools around the country, and the system that allows it perpetuate itself with each subsequent generation of students. We need to hold our ministry of education accountable, fire the persons there that refuse to take action, we need to make our laws more stringent for sex offenders and facilitate organisations created to tackle this terrible problem to do their job efficiently. We need to act.

*: John is a slang for a person who solicits sex from a prostitute.   

Editor