Minister Meets Naked Prostitutes

Deputy Tourism Minister James Agyenim Boateng last Friday chanced upon a naked man, believed to be in his late 30s, who had just finished having sex with a prostitute in a Takoradi hotel.

This occurred when the minister, together with some officials from his ministry and police personnel, stormed the facility to have it closed down.

As for the sex worker, she quickly used a T-shirt to cover her nakedness away from the deputy minister, his entourage and journalists.

The deputy minister, who was in Takoradi to order the closure of Zenith Hotel, whose licence had expired since 2007, quickly ordered the prostitutes to pack their luggage and move out, a directive they complied with amid shouts of 'Yes we are leaving Takoradi but we will go and continue in Tema'.

As if to call the deputy minister's bluff, they quickly hired a Toyota Urvan bus nearby, packed their luggage inside and asked the driver to take them to Tema, as they were hooted at by the large crowd that gathered at the entrance of the hotel to witness the operation.

According to Mr. Agyenim-Boateng, the operating licence of Zenith Hotel had expired since 2007 and the authorities at the hotel had failed to renew it.

When the Deputy Minister for Tourism got to the hotel premises at about 7.00 pm on Friday, most of the prostitutes who got wind of the operation had locked themselves up in their respective rooms.

Personnel of the Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) of the Ghana Police Service in Takoradi, who accompanied the minister, forced open the rooms and ferreted the sex traders out.

It was realized that some mosquito nets had been used to partition the rooms, each of which contained four or more prostitutes.

The prostitutes had converted the bathhouse into a kitchen and some of the rooms were unhealthy for human occupation, as they were poorly ventilated.

Speaking to journalists, Mr. Aygenim-Boateng indicated that the exercise was intended to clamp down on hoteliers who were not operating within the confines of the law and that all hoteliers found culpable would be fined or serve 12 months' jail-term or both.

He added that it was also to ensure sanity in the hospitality industry and to prevent hoteliers from denying the state its revenue.

He appealed to all hoteliers to regularize their activities to avoid closure.