FCT Rehab Centre suffers neglect

The Federal Capital Territory Rehabilitation Centre, Sabon Lugbe, is in a sorry state. The centre meant to rehabilitate prostitutes and other category of people has not been functional for more than one year, Aso Chronicle has learnt People living around the centre said the last batch of girls admitted into the centre left due to […]

The Federal Capital Territory Rehabilitation Centre, Sabon Lugbe, is in a sorry state. The centre meant to rehabilitate prostitutes and other category of people has not been functional for more than one year, Aso Chronicle has learnt

People living around the centre said the last batch of girls admitted into the centre left due to poor treatment and dearth of facilities. 

A resident who lives close to the centre and wants to be identified only as Malam Abdullahi, said there were no inmates for over a year.  

Malam Abdullahi, who is a herdsman, said the last set of girls who were boarded at the facility left when there was no adequate provision for their feeding and other needs.  

“I have been living here for the past 15 years and this building was built right in my presence, at a point the girls they normally bring here lacked proper care from the management and they found their ways back to their various destinations and presently the two people living there are the security men, ” he said.

He said nobody was brought to the centre for more than one year, raising questions on where and how the FCTA rehabilitates the commercial sex workers, who are very often  arrested by authorities with claims in the media that they would be rehabilitated. 

The rehabilitation centre which  is under the supervision of the Social Development Secretariat, has been overgrown by grass when our reporters visited.   

Though the security personnel denied them entry into the premises, a peep inside showed that the buildings within the centre were empty and covered with cobwebs and dust.  

At the beginning of the year, the FCTA, through the Joint Task Force for the Cleaning of Abuja, arrested 89 commercial sex workers, whom they prosecuted in a mobile court and handed them over to the Social Development Secretariat for rehabilitation. 

A press statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the minister, Hazat Sule on January 24, 2017, said ridding the territory of prostitutes was a priority for the administration.

“He said the task team has so far arrested 89 commercial sex workers who have been prosecuted and handed over to the Social Development Secretariat for rehabilitation to enable them learn useful skills,” Sule quoted the Acting Director of the FCT Directorate of Road Traffic Services, Mr. Wadata Aliyu Bodinga, who had briefed the minister on the activities of the task force.

Also, on February 26, 2016, the Social Development Secretariat during a press briefing by its Acting Secretary, Mrs. Adebola Elegbede, said 55 prostitutes were arrested.

She decried the high rate of commercial sex workers in the FCT, stressing that it is not surprised that FCT is rated highest in Nigeria with HIV/AIDs prevalence.  

Elegbede, who called on the women of easy virtue to engage themselves in meaningful ventures pledge the readiness of the FCT Administration to train repentant commercial sex workers in various entrepreneurial skills.

When our reporters visited the Social Development Secretariat, which should have custody of the commercial sex workers, they admitted they do not have any inmates at the rehabilitation centre at the moment. 

The Director, Social Welfare Services of the secretariat, Mrs Felicia Nwogu, who spoke on behalf of the acting secretary, said: “When the commercial sex workers were apprehended, the FCT management had already declared a zero tolerance for such acts in the city, the major thing is that we find out from them what they really want to do in life and you would be surprised that 80% of them are not even interested in being rehabilitated but however, some of them still desired to be rehabilitated. 

“We already have an existing structure in place that needs a few things to be done in it. It was functional before but the NGO that was in charge of it, the government saw it more like a reap off, so a new system is to be put in place, so we take them in there for those who are willing to be rehabilitated.  

“There are various skills that they can make a choice from such as hair dressing, fashion designing, make- up , beads making and these are all things that can provide a comfortable income.  But surprisingly, the earlier batches of young girls that were trained,  some of them were found in recent arrest, and they were trained, empowered to go and start up their own business and they are back again to the field of prostitution. 

“However, government will still play its part knowing quite alright that some will still make a good name out of it,” the director said.

When asked why they continue arresting while they no longer rehabilitate, she said it was not decent to leave a capital city like Abuja littered with prostitutes. 

She said they have been under pressure from human rights activists to stop the arrests but that the minister has also mandated them to clear the city of commercial sex workers.

“Recently we caught a 58- year-old woman and we have pregnant ones among them, we have some who left their infants locked up in their houses and they come out to the street. 

“Like I earlier said, if we arrest them, if the immediate mobile court that is put in place certifies not guilty, then she is free to go but some of them will tell you that ‘I be hustler’, so we counsel them, profile them and the rest are left for the mobile court handled by the magistrate.’’she said. 

On the state of the rehabilitation centre, she said a few things have been vandalised there so repairs will have to be carried out before it can become operational again.

She added that the memo for the refurbishing of the centre has already been raised, the administration is interested in seeing the centre come back to life. 

Asked what they have done with the most recent prostitutes that were arrested she said: “After facing the mobile court, and those who are actually not found guilty were set free  and those who were guilty paid fine. It is about just N200. They were counselled on the implications and some of them get to understand. Counselling does a lot to them and they make a pledge and leave.”