The Bauchi state government has said it would conduct headcount of commercial sex-workers in the state with a view to having an accurate data on them.
This was made known by the Permanent Commissioner in charge of Hisbah and Sharia Implementation, Malam Aminu Balarabe-Isah, in Bauchi on Monday during a sensitization workshop organized for commercial sex-workers.
He said that the information generated from the exercise would help the commission in taking measures aimed at discouraging them from continuing with their dangerous trade.
Isah disclosed plans by the state government to organize empowerment programmes for them and also provide capital for them 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 out on them by their step-mothers.
He added that minor family squabbles also contributed to their decision to take to prostitution, assuring that the state government would make efforts to re-unite them with their families.
The commissioner expressed readiness of the state government to organize mass marriages for those of them who were lucky to get serious suitors.
Hafsatu Azare, who spoke on behalf of the sex-workers, assured that they are willing to quit the trade if government would empower them economically, describing their condition as pathetic.
