Ogun sex workers protest colleague’s death, hold procession

Scores of commercial sex workers in Abeokuta on
Monday night held a candlelight procession in honour
of their colleague, who was allegedly killed by
suspected ritualists last Sunday.
Persons, suspected to be ritualists, had killed and
dumped the corpse of one 23-year-old Sitira at a
refuse site at Oloomore junction, Abeokuta, in the
early hours of the fateful day.
A chunk of flesh was severed from her right arm by
her assailants.
The late Sitira was said to have been thrown off from
a moving Sport Utility Vehicle along the Abeokuta-
Lagos Expressway.
The sex workers, who wore black dresses,
stormed the state secretariat of the Nigeria Union of
Journalists, Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta, on Monday night,
wailing.
However, on Monday, about 50 commercial sex
workers, plying their trade in Abeokuta, converged
on the NUJ secretariat and also at the frontage of the
nearby residence of former Head of Interim National
Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan.
They identified their slain colleague with different
names such as Titi and Folake.
Bearing lighted candles, they chanted various
solidarity songs and rained curses on the unnamed
killers of their colleague.
They said, “Oro nla le da, oro nla le da, eyin tepa Titi,
t’eje o dagba, oro nla le da. Omo yin ma ku, eeeheee
Omo yin maku, eyin tepa Titi t’eje o dagba, omo yin
ma ku.”
Meaning, “You have done something grievous, you
have done something grievous by killing Titi
prematurely. The killers of Titi (Sitira) have done
something grievous. Their children will die, their
children will die, those that killed Titi, will lose their
children.”
They later departed for the MKO Abiola International
Stadium, Kuto, Abeokuta, another spot where they
ply their trade to continue their mourning.
Speaking with journalists, some of them claimed
that another colleague in the same business was
killed by suspected ritualists alongside Sitira.
They explained that the mutilated remains of the sex
worker was uncovered in a ditch at the same
Olomoore, Abeokuta.