A report by Hisbah officials (the Sharia police) indicating that 44 out of 93commercial sex workers arrested last Sunday at Kwanar Gafan are infected with deadly HIV/AIDS, is eliciting fears of massive spread of the scourge in the area –not only among clients but among innocent housewives across Kano state.

If a single market could harbour as much as 44 HIV infected ‘prostitutes’, how many unsuspecting clients could have contracted the virus from the victims? What factors could have been responsible for the convergence of prostitutes at the Kwanan Gafan market? What would be the fate of innocent housewives who might have contracted the disease through unfaithful partners? What steps would the state government take to checkmate further spread of the scourge to other parts of the state? These questions and others have been befuddling the minds of residents in the wake of the Hisbah report.


The Kwanar Gafan market which deals mostly in tomato business is believed to be drawing people from all parts of Nigeria and neighbouring countries like Niger, Cameroon and Chad Republics.

Investigations by Weekly Trust revealed that the sex hawkers usually assemble at the market about two or three weeks before the seasonal business activities commenced.

“Most of the prostitutes are not locals but strangers from other parts of Nigeria and the neighbouring countries. It is the cosmopolitan nature of the women that attracts clients to them even from the city,” a source familiar with activities in the market told Weekly Trust.

“They had pimps who arranged huts and tents for them in readiness for potential clients. After securing the accommodation, they then engaged in other legal businesses like sales of food, perfume, knitting among others as smokescreens to hide their depraved activities.

“Those who could not afford huts or tents normally took their clients deep into the thick bushes around the market in the dead of night,” the source said further.

Though the prostitutes were said to get much of their patronage from truck drivers, labourers and traders, armed robbers, pickpockets, dupes, jesters, local musicians and drug hawkers were also believed to be among their clients.

With most of the occupied huts adorned by dim-lit bulbs and powered by generators and folk music blaring through loud speakers, it was learnt that Kwanan Gafan effectively turned into a red-light district during late hours.

According to the Kano State Hisbah Board, intelligence information obtained by its undercover personnel revealed that during this time, the market is always consumed by lascivious activities. But most of the suspects the board arrested on suspicion of prostitution denied any wrongdoing, maintaining that they were only carrying out their legitimate business.

One of the suspects, Fatima, 32, who was accused of exhibiting nudity, told Weekly Trust that “I am a restaurant operator from Jos and not a prostitute. Everyone in that place knows that I sold food apart from doing other businesses. I don’t know why I was arrested because I had done nothing wrong”,

Another suspect, who gave her name as Sadiya Musa also denied being a woman of easy virtue. “I was caught in my room while I was sleeping alone but I am not a prostitute. Selling incense has been my business at Kawan Gafan for a longtime,” she said.

Equally, one of the men nabbed by the Sharia police said that he was arrested when he tried to prevent his ‘wife’ from being picked by the Hisbah personnel.

“The woman I tried to protect is my wife whom I brought from Lagos. We had one male child with her while she was in Lagos. I relocated her back to Kano so she could take over my mother’s cooking business since she became too old to continue. But before then my wife had never traveled to Kano.

“When we were arrested, the Hisbah men only told us that we would be taken to the city for screening to verify whether the women they arrested were our wives or not. I never knew that it would come to this kind of humiliation,” he said.

However, the Commander-General of the Hisbah Board, Sheik Umar Muhammed Aminu Daurawa, who addressed reporters over the raid, punctured the claims of the suspects, stressing that “no responsible husband or wife would agree to reside in an environment that has been infamously known for promiscuity and other anti-social and criminal activities.

According to him, “Our raid was based on a calculated and painstaking surveillance which revealed the prevalence of various promiscuous and anti-social activities at Kawan Gafan including, public display of prostitution, drug abuse, child labour, violation of female minors, blatant disrespect for Sharia law and the use of dangerous weapons for armed robbery and terrorism. The raid which began at 11:00am lasted for about 15 minutes. We are happy to say that the incursion produced fruitful results as we have succeeded in arresting about 93 persons in connection to the prostitution ring.”

The Hisbah boss, who confirmed the HIV tests being conducted on the suspects, said that most of them were non-Muslim who came from 11 states, mostly in the southern part of the country.

“Since Kwanan Gafan is a seasonal market, there would always be the tendency of people coming from other parts of the country to buy or sell their wares. This is how prostitutes and other criminal elements capitalize on the opportunity to sneak into the market for prostitution and liquor business.

“If you see the quantity of broken liquor bottles that littered the streets after the raid, there was no way you could have accepted all those claims the suspects are making. Still, if we discover in the course of investigations that there are innocent ones among them, we will release them. But they will also be warned never to mingle with indecent people again,” he said.

Raising alarm over the high rate of HIV infections among the suspects, Daurawa described the development as “a threat to innocent housewives who risk contacting the disease from depraved partners.

“It is a very dangerous trend because housewives could end up paying the price for their husband’s debauchery. For instance, a trader who got lured into sleeping with these infected prostitutes in the market could later transmit the infection to his innocent wife at home. This is where the danger lies. Therefore, we are considering the need to collaborate with health workers in order to screen the traders at Kwanan Gafan so as to minimize the risks of spreading the disease,” he explained.

Daurawa vowed that the attacks suffered by its operatives during the raid at Kwana Gafan would not deter the board from conducting similar operations whenever there is need to do so.

“We are committed to the enforcement of Sharia law in the state and as such, we are bound to be opposed by those who are averse to Islamic law. We may suffer injuries or even death, but that would only embolden our resolve,” he affirmed.

The spokesman of the Hisbah Board, Malam Musa Tanko, told our reporter that 83 of the suspected prostitutes have already been charged to the Rijyar Zaki Magistrate Court over prostitution.

Also commenting on the issue, the Director of Primary Health Care and Disease Control Dr. Muhammed Nasiru Mahmood told Weekly Trust that the high rate of HIV among sex workers and other groups does not represent the general rate of infections in Kano state.

“Though sex workers are among the high risk groups because of their way of life, getting HIV among them is not a representation of the general population. I think it is very important to note this. Everywhere you go, high-risk groups are like that,” he said.

Nonetheless, Dr. Mahmood said that the Kano state government is not taking any chances but will always enlighten the populace on the dangers of the HIV infections.

“The state Ministry of Health has been actively working with the Federal Ministry of Health and other partners to ensure that the HIV scourge is adequately addressed and brought under control. The HIV status in Kano during the last survey was 4.4 percent which is quite low when compared with that of other states.

“But even with that, we are still not sleeping. It is a big challenge given the large population of the state. Government has been doing a lot in terms of public enlightenment activities and in the area of providing services like free screening and medications.”

He added that the cosmopolitan nature of people coming in and out of Kano state contributed to the health challenges it faces not only in HIV/AIDs infections but in other diseases as well.

“But our collaboration with organs like the State Action Committee on AIDs (SACA), the Hospital Management Board, and others is helping greatly in bringing the HIV scourge under control. Even the action of the Hisbah Board which centers on ridding the society of immorality should be seen in the context of prevention”, the physician explained.

But it remains to be seen whether the government’s assurances could assuage the rising fears of a possible HIV pandemic among the Kano populace.

http://weeklytrust.com.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9157:fear-of-hiv-scourge-seizes-kano-as-44-prostitutes-test-positive-&catid=40:cover-stories&Itemid=26

the news that almost half of these ashis are infected is NOT what is troubling here, it is the fact that people are shaking in their boots. why would intelligent smart men have unprotected s[b]e[/b]x with ashewos?! WHY WHY WHY!!!!!!!