Sex workers storm port city

Sex workers in the port city of Tema had a field-day during the Christmas holidays and reaped quite a bumper harvest.

Spectator news hounds prowled the city when night-life was at its bursting point between 10:00pm and 1:00am, on the eve of Christmas (24th night) and Christmas Day, December 25.

What they witnessed is worth revealing to our news hungry readers who want to know how the yuletide went in some parts of the country.

Areas where the sex vampires were spotted include the Tema harbor area, near the Customs Longroom, where articulated trucks from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are parked. That area has for a long time become noted for immoral activities under the cover of darkness. That is where horny and sex-starved cross-border drivers are alleged to "freak themselves out" when in transit.

As early as 8:00pm, the area started bustling with girls as young as 14, gaudily dressed in pairs of skimpy trousers and light tops and pairs of high-heeled shoes; deliberately flaunting their bottoms in the shameless advertisement of their vital statistics.

Generally, the area is dark and a sex worker can decide to service a client right behind a parked articulated truck or inside a truck, whichever is convenient, of course, under the cover of darkness.

Spectator investigations also revealed that some of these sex workers are in fact hawkers who sell during the day to the drivers and their mates and those who do business in the port area like clearing agents and their lackeys.

A woman who does business in the area told the Spectator on anonymity that some of the young hawkers usually befriend the Francophone drivers and mates and come at night to canoodle and eventually have sex in exchange for CFA currency, wax-prints and other goodies.

"Those who don't have boyfriends among the drivers and their mates, come to look for night-time sex work," the woman revealed. "Some are single mothers who need money to pay their rent and school fees of their children, and find the night work very convenient. A few are old-time prostitutes who think they are still on road."

The woman also revealed that prostitutes from Accra have come hovering in the area this Christmas. She said in the near past, some of them clashed with their local counterparts who wanted to maintain territorial sovereignty over their key operational areas and would not brook any external intrusion.

Apart from the harbour area, Communities Eight and Two are operational areas for some sex workers. On the eve of Christmas, an open-air jamboree was staged at Community Two, which provided the perfect atmosphere for sex workers to grab willing clients.

The Spectator keenly spotted some of the sex workers in tete-a-tete with customers and after a short while, they vanished into thin air to unknown destinations.

Some of the half-naked prostitutes were visibly drunk and some were smoking in the open, obviously to give indication that they were up for grabs.

At Community 8, the beer bars were jammed to capacity on 24th Night and 25th Night, with over-40 prostitutes as the main attraction. Their weighty bottoms were conspicuous as they strutted provocatively up and down, flagging down cars and puffing away on cigarettes.

A hotel (name withheld) became the final destination of some of the sex workers and their late catches.

Some pharmacies and chemical store operators this paper interviewed said condom sales have increased appreciably during the holidays.

One of the sales persons, a lady of about 21, told The Spectator, "It is the youngsters who come here for the condoms this time. I'm happy they come for condoms because it will save their lives. I'm also happy because there is awareness that HIV/AIDS is still making the rounds and so everybody has to be careful."