Child prostitution exposed on video

(Daily Guide) --It sounds incredible, but DAILY GUIDE has in its custody a video recording of naked Ghanaian teenage girls in Accra, caught live on tape in the act of prostitution.

The over-one-hour recording is saved on a digital versatile disk (DVD) and is perhaps the first documentary evidence of the much-talked-about child prostitution in Ghana.

It was secretly shot by Ghana's Investigative Journalist of the Year, Anas Aremeyaw Anas at a brothel popularly known as 'Soldier Bar' at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.

Anas, who picked the coveted prize last year, disguised himself and worked at the brothel as a cleaner and bouncer. He cleaned up the rooms and ensured that the women were paid by the clients.

Girls as young as 14 were captured entering a wooden cubicle with their male counterparts. The room takes a student-size bed and just enough space to move to the door and back.

In all of the sex episodes, there was no foreplay, no cuddling, no fondling, no kissing and no caressing.

Once the girl receives the money, she removes her panties, brings out a condom and helps the man to put it on. She then lies on the bed and straight away, and the thrusting starts.

Once the man ejaculates, his time is over and he has to leave the room. The girl then wipes her private parts with tissue paper and throws it down on the floor of the room.

Some of the men who requested to have more than one 'round' of sex were made to pay for each 'round'.

It costs GH?3 for each round and this is what is referred to as 'short time' sex. It was always cash before sex and each of the girls ensured that they received the money before the act.

The video did not only capture the faces of the girls and their male counterparts but also their nakedness and how some of the men were penetrating and spinning their waists on the young girls.

Watching the video, one would think there was a queue of call girls and their male counterparts at the door because the moment one couple moves out, another couple enters and this continued for over an hour.

At times, when a call girl is in the middle of servicing her client, another call girl will knock on the door requesting for quicker action because she also needs to use the room.

Capturing the video

Explaining how the video was recorded, Anas said he actually worked under cover as a pimp at the 'Soldier Bar' during which he planted the secret camera in one of the brothel rooms.

He said his job description was to sweep the rooms, dress the bed and clear the used condoms.

"For sometime now, many journalists have been following this story about child prostitution in Ghana but there had never been enough evidence to put someone before court, and I do not want to investigate an illegality for the story to end up only in the press while the perpetuators of that illegal act walk about freely," Anas added.

DAILY GUIDE did a tour of the brothel over the weekend and observed that indeed child prostitution, though illegal, is a very popular business in Ghana.

The said brothel is a well known one in the capital city and the teen prostitutes who trade there do not hide themselves in any way.

They number over 200 and skillfully glide their partly covered bodies in search of 'customers'. As they wait, some of them puff on sticks of cigarette.

They are dressed in very seductive ways such that some of them have their breasts and lower pubic hairs showing while others do not have any underwear on beneath their miniskirts, exposing their buttocks.

DAILY GUIDE spoke to some of them who were ready to follow this reporter to his house and service him the whole night if only he would pay an amount of GH?20.

Most of the girls this paper spoke to could not express themselves well in the Queen's Language, and though they were drenched in cheap perfume, they did not appear to be neat.