By Osahon Osahon
A brothel situated around Ugbague Street Off Mission Road in Benin, Edo State capital, has evicted commercial sex workers operating with the facility over fear of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic in the state.
The owner of the brothel simply identified as Osagie said the measure is aimed at curtailing further spread of the disease among commercial sex workers and their customers in the state.
Edo State has recorded seven confirmed cases of the Coronavirus with one death as of Friday night. The speaker of the State House of Assembly, Frank Okiye, is among those to have tested positive to the pandemic.
Osagie who said that the eviction became necessary because of the speed at which the virus spreads from person-to-person, added that there is high possibility that if one of the prostitutes contracts it, she might spread it to others.
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He said though a brothel business has not been legalized in the country, he has a duty to help curtail the spread of the virus, hence he decided to ask those occupying his buildings to take a break and go home.
He said: “I asked the prostitutes occupying my buildings to go home and meet their children and families at their various states, because any man who has the virus may infect them and they can easily spread it.
“I have children and I can’t ask my children not to embrace me and you know that these prostitutes are occupying my buildings and I am the one managing the facilities and so I am afraid. That is why I asked them to go home and stay with their children at home until the coronavirus dies down.
“lt is better to die of hunger than to die of a disease.”
The brothel manager who said he has spent over N20,000 in taking care of those who couldn’t travel back to their respective states of origin before the closure of the inter-state borders, thanked the state government for the partial lockdown, unlike other states who declared total lockdown.
