The Bauchi state government has concluded plans to conduct a headcount of commercial sex workers in the state with a view to having accurate data on them.
Aminu Balarabe-Isah, Permanent Commissioner in charge of Hisbah and Sharia implementation, made this known during a sensitisation workshop organised for commercial sex workers in the state on Monday, April 12.
He said the information generated from the exercise would help the commission in taking measures aimed at discouraging them from continuing with their ‘dangerous’ trade.
According to him, the state government’s plan is to organise empowerment programmes for the sex workers and then provide them with capital to start small scale businesses.
He explained that investigations conducted by his agency indicated that most of the sex workers took to prostitution as a result of illiteracy, poverty or maltreatment meted on them by their step-mothers.
He said that minor family squabbles also contributed to their decision to take to prostitution, assuring that government would make efforts to reunite them with their parents.
Speaking on behalf of the other sex workers, Hafsatu Azare, said they were all willing to quit the trade on condition that the Federal government empowers them economically.