Jabi Upstairs is a popular slum in the Jabi District of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and home to a community of women whose livelihood revolves around sex, liquor and cash.
In the animal kingdom, it is generally accepted that the lion is the “king of the jungle” but as for this small community in Jabi District of Abuja, a special breed of women are in charge.
Jabi, one of the villages that survived the bulldozers that rolled through the slums of Abuja a few years ago, is the abode of the good, bad and ugly.
The particular spot of note is the area called Jabi Upstair, a busy red light district where many women of easy virtue have taken as a home.
Here veterans of the prostitution business are known as senior ‘aunties’ and sometimes referred to as “retired prostitutes”.
You may call them the queens of the kingdom because they rule over the whole community. The community is located on the road leading to Life camp, and Idu Karmo. Although, it is one of those “illegal” villages, the Department of Development Control, chose to spare it for several reasons.
It is a small community, dotted with several dwarf buildings and looks more like a transit camp. It is heavily populated with people of different tribes and social status.
It hosts many recreation joints which attract high patronage of both low and high profile residents and visitors. It has over a 100 beer parlours sandwiched among residential quarters in this small enclave.
A visit to the community during the recent Eid el Fitri holidays revealed that it was indeed a “Golgotha” where many careless fun seekers get crucified on the cross of liqour and cheap sex.
After sitting in one of the recreation joints for over six hours, it was observed that most of the beer parlours were operated by women.
A very keen observer would discover that the women have so many identical features. They are within the age bracket of 40-55 years, at least judging by their simple facial outlook.
Their clothing styles, facial make up artistry, body contours, depict them as ‘desperate sex marketers’. It is only a blind person that would not notice the tear and wear, conspicuously begging for attention on the bodies of these ‘maximum rulers’ of the jungle.
Despite the multiple colours on their skins as a result of excessive make up, these women are dangerously clad in sexy outfits that could make a man’s neck spin 360 degrees to catch a glimpse.
Steve, a regular patron of the beer parlours said that these women having spent the earlier part of their career in prostitution have simply diversified into running the show from behind by setting up fun spots where the younger ladies meet young men who want to hang out and have fun.
“I know many of these women personally. I have spent over 20 years in Abuja, as a contractor. When Wuse Zone 4 was the central place for prostitution in this town, some of these women were among the call girls standing on the streets. I can identify some of them. Now they seem tired of hustling and needed to change their line of business.
“Some of them migrated from other towns to change their line of business. This is obviously because age has edged them out of the hustling business, and some of them, having lost family relationships and bonds, are trying to get reintegrated into the social circle again,” he said.
The notoriety of this place is so astonishingly compounded with the fact that apart from those who operate beer parlours, all other micro businesses, like barbeques, airtime retailing, hair dressing saloons, are also managed by women whose dressing and mannerisms betray their innocence.
One trend which keen and curious observations revealed about this place is that the women operating these beer parlours possess an irresistible luring masterstroke which most men, except those gifted with robustly cultivated discipline, can’t escape.
They use every arsenals within their disposal, including eye contact, charming smile and partially covered seductive contours to woo patrons to their relaxation spots.
Trust men, those who have not got permanent ‘mistresses’ will come around, stand aloof while with their eyes and senses discern a suitable spot that would suit their sensual appeals. What could be responsible for this momentary confusion that grips men who sometimes stand at the fringe of the place in pretentious phone calls, but with opened eyes on marathon race to catch an appealing sight that goes a long way in determining their choices of places to relax?
It was also gathered that what makes these women ‘rulers’ in their various domains of influence, is their ability and mastery in assembling younger and attractive ladies, who are not just waitresses, but serve as honeycomb that attract swamp of bees.
Investigations also revealed that the younger ladies, who overtly pose as part of the management team of the beer parlours, are covertly booby traps that catch men, both for their benefits and that of their principals.
Completing the circle of the high profile conspiracy between the retired sex workers and the younger ladies, against unsuspecting men, is the discovery that there is a covert accommodation arrangements, behind most of the beer parlours, made for men who may want “quick services” from the women.
A harmless visit to this ever busy fun Ville would clear any doubt whether these women have mastery of the art in luring men or not.
Indeed, they rule and may for a very long time maintain their rulership over gullible fun seekers who have no control over their appetites.
Their headaches
While there is no doubt that these women are making brisk business from liquor sales and other social and emotional services available there, they however, have a number of concerns.
From investigation, their major headache is the constant raiding of the place by security agents, who believe that the place provides safe haven to criminals.
This was confirmed when one crisply dressed lady walked in, and the chanting of “Chair lady, chair lady” by other women and patrons rented the air.
As soon as she fixed her intimidating and well-built body in one of the plastic chairs close to one of the patrons, she resumed a heartfelt lamentation in response to the patrons friendly banter “chair lady, you are eating alone.”
Her lamentation begins: “I am not eating anything. These policemen are disturbing us.
They come to this place almost every day to arrest everybody they see. They said that all the criminals in Abuja come here to relax and also hide after they commit crime.
“We have been taking wine to the Divisional Officer in charge of Jabi so that they can stop harassing our customers. You see, today is Sallah and this place is not filled up as it used to be. Even the big people that used to come here are afraid to come.
“We have begged the police to always use intelligence to identify the criminals and stop harassing everybody that comes here, but their officers will always come to arrest any person they see, and it is affecting us”, she noted.
.new telegraph
