For Deborah, a Lagos-based stripper also known as Debbchina, the night of January 10, 2021, had started out as another shot at hustling until operatives of the state police raided a strip club where she was to work the night for violating COVID-19 protocol.

This followed the temporary ban on bars that sought to curtail a second wave of the virus. In no time, clients and club workers scurried to their hiding places while the quick ones made for the exit.

A bevy of racily dressed strippers including Deborah left the room where they were pleasuring their clients to get an idea of what had gone wrong in the outer section of the nightclub.

It was when they were walked into a police van in what turned out to be a mass arrest — while still dressed in their costumes — that the mood of the night switched. As they violated state directives, Deborah would later claim that they were billed “over N3 million”.

‘We were made to pay over N3m, charged to court’

“Half-naked, we the strippers came out thinking it was a small issue. But we were ordered to enter the van. They threatened to teach us a lesson.”

“We were taken to Maroko Police Station in Victoria Island, brought out at 8 am, and put in a Task Force vehicle after they took pictures and videos. They made fun of us. We were 19 to 21 strippers with coordinators, shisha men, customers, and waitresses making 45.”

“At around 12 pm, they took us to Oshodi, saying they were going to charge us to court. We thought we were only going to pay a fine and go home after then. We were told to plead guilty to make the procedure easy.”

“They gave us two options; said it’s either we spend a week in detention or we pay N20,000 for bail and N5,000 for something that had to do with environmental costs. They said we had to test for COVID-19, even when the judge didn’t say so.

“I had already done it thrice before then and never had to pay for it myself. After everything, at which time we were expecting to be bailed, we were remanded to custody. It was the next day (12th) we were asked to pay N50,400 each for the COVID-19 test.”

“They themselves had us exposed to the virus by forcing 32 sweaty girls into a stuffy cell that had a urinary bucket in it. We had to break the bucket and threw it out. We spent three to four days in detention.”

“We paid bail but we were still forced to test for COVID-19. We started looking for ways to put resources together.”

– Source TheCable