'AJ City' as I vividly recall it being called and for a city with a notoriety that it has come to be associated with, it is right on track in terms of valuation. It may well be the most notorious city within Lagos yet and one of the most crowded. You see, my visit to AJ city was not what I planned but out of necessity and I pretty much had to adapt to the environment.
One of the first things I noticed when I entered that city was the number of beer parlours and brothels, and then the flooding number of underage and teenage mothers still trying to desperately strut their stuff, many of whom are in the early teenage years are seen carrying children on their backs and also you can visibly see the tattoos on their neck(the stars) and then on other visible parts of their bodies and it was like a cult like situation where to fell a sense of belonging, you must be branded.
I settled into the hotel I was able to get after having waited for over 3hrs for the boy and girl having unprotected sex to be done with their 'demonic expressions'. You see, I had o wait for that long because I had no money to afford a better hotel and was pressed hard until I was able to secure this one in one of the most fearful parts of the city.
Ok let me tell you how I got to find myself in Ajegunle. I was at Apapa for an interview and after the interview, it was late for me to return to Port Harcourt which is my place of residence, so I decide to get a place to sleep for the night and after searching for the cheapest place I could get, Ajegunle offered me the chance to lay my head for N1,500 a night with the condition that I had to wait until 9pm when short time services are closed in the brothel and then endure the smell and tortured bed spread that has witnessed countless number of sex hours, some of which led to unwanted pregnancies which mostly resulted in abortion or an innocent little child being born to a crack head dad and a below reasoning mother.
I slept that night with my full attire on because the bedspread was a pain and the smell was simply sickening. I was sick for the next two days after that night. What happened while I waited? You want to know abi? Ok. I was waiting outside the brothel for the time to reach 9pm so I can go in and sleep, and while there, I counted over 40 teenage girls coming and going from the brothel like they were moving inside their father's house. The scene can only best be described in the "telemundo" terms. People must have lost their sense of decency to patronize this kind of life. Some of these sessions only lasted between 10 to 20 minutes because I was counting time mostly and I also witnessed when a policeman still in uniform walked into the brothel and after ordering his "special" was escorted into one of the rooms by his "special woman" who was practically naked save for the silk gown she had over her over bleached stretch marked body. I was propositioned by a lady not too long after I ordered a bottle of pepsi to eat the fish roll I bought outside. She wanted to "show" me some good time for just a small 'token'. I politely declined but she wouldn't stop, she said she knew I was 'feeling her' and I responded that I was really feeling her but in pains and having her proposition me made me want to throw up and she laughed thinking I just complimented her.
After the pestering, she asked me to buy her a bottle of beer and I told her I was a pastor and that I don't drink alchohol and will not buy for anybody. She reminded me that I was human and that "body no be fire wood o". As I was trying to enlighten her about the dangers of what she was doing, there was a loud bang and then followed by shattering of bottles. I got up quickly and moved away from the crowd hoping not to be caught in the cross fire of whatever was being fired and within minutes, I saw 2 young men hurrying down the corridor into the bar, one of them was bleeding from the head and he had on what looked like a yellow t-shirt and it was almost soaked with blood and as if they were not fast enough, another guy rushed into the bar wielding a machete and he too was bleeding from beneath his left eye where a visible gush was. They must have been inside the brothel because that was where they came from.
There was chaos and within hours the number of madmen increased and it was a free for all fight, I was careful not to be caught in that cross fire but couldn't get myself out of the hotel so I docked behind the deep freezer which offered a manageable enough space. The battle lasted for about 10 minutes before the police came with their riot squad, but to me it was like 1 hour of hell and shattering of bottles and the "very loud ha,ha ha, ha, emi, o mo mi o".
When the sirens blared I was relieved but was not worried what would happen if the police decided to round up everybody inside the bar. I hid where I was I could hear the harsh barking of the police officer and when it was not enough, they teargased the place and then all hell was let lose as they was "yeee, yeee" and the "Ha ha". I couldn't help myself so I ran out of my hiding place, it was like being smoked out of a hole like a rat. I had no idea what was happening until I found myself being hurled up into the waiting van. To be continued...
Editor's note: What do you think happened? Was our guy arrested with the lot or was he let go because he knew nothing about the fight? Comment with your thought.
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