Strip clubs, where girls dance stark naked and pornographic movies are shown along with the erotic and exotic dances, have multiplied on Opebi-Allen axis of Ikeja, Lagos, western Nigeria, P.M.NEWS undercover investigation has revealed.
By this time last year, there were about two functional strip clubs on Opebi-Allen Axis of Ikeja, but when the sun disappears on Friday and everywhere is dark, at least six strip clubs would be opening for business in the area, our checks have shown.
The adult entertainment venues, located on a stretch of just over a kilometre, are so close to each other, that patrons trek from one strip club to another within minutes to enjoy the lewd dances, including lap and table dances as well as sex bouts in the VIP lounges.
Some of the new strip clubs in the area are old ones that went under for sometime but are now back in full force and are operating freely with the backing of the Lagos State House of Assembly which legalised them about three years ago.
The six strip clubs are: Ocean Blue on Sensation Bus Stop in Opebi, Teazers Cabaret by Opebi Bus Stop and Unique Gents’ Club on Ogundana Street in Allen. Others are Didoz, Wall Street and the Villa, all of them located around First Bank Bus Stop.
Ocean Blue whose building collapsed last year shortly after a church moved nearby has been rebuilt and reopened for business. It prides itself as Nigeria’s strip club with girls on fire.
Like in a boxing ring, patrons, mainly married and unmarried men, sit around the ‘ring’ and siping their drinks and watch the female dancers who gradually remove everything, including their pants as they dance around a pole, their bodies gleaming.
The strip clubs argue that they are simply providing a demand, a deep and secret urge in mainly men who troop in there every night of every week.
“Like Al Capone said in 1926, I am like any other man, I supply a demand,” reads a big inscription in Ocean Blue.
“God bless Nigeria,” says another inscription on a Nigerian flag pasted on the wall.
Around the flag and all over the wall, there are about 15 female pants hanging all over the place.
While entrance fee is N1000 from Sundays to Thursdays, it goes for N2000 Fridays and Saturdays when the demand is high and the space to accommodate all the men is limited.
The VIP lounge at Ocean Blue goes for N8000. P.M.NEWS learnt that the money is shared into two. The management of the club takes N5000 and the girl who accompanies the patron to the VIP for sex bags N3000.
The drinks go from N400 for a bottle of water to N25000 for some liquors.
Unique Gents Club on Ogundana Street just like Ocean Blue opens for business daily and completed its multi-million naira building mid-last year. It prides itself as Nigeria’s number one strip club. Patrons are made to part with a few thousands to gain access.
Teazers Cabaret at Opebi Bus Stop just like Didoz, Wall Street and Villa on Allen do not request for any gate fees. But patrons are asked to spend inside from drinks to lap dance to sex rounds.
The drinks vary from N500 for a soft drink such as coke to about N20,000 for liquors.
The lap dance, where dancers sit naked on the patron and perform some sorts of lewd dance, attract N1000 for a full dance.
Phone numbers with the dancers are secretly exchanged in all the six clubs for further interaction at home or elsewhere.
Our correspondent observed that men who patronised the six strip clubs between Monday and Thursday this week were middle aged and workers. Most of them appear to be married.
“I like her stature,” exclaimed one married man as a dancer bared it all before him and other men. Our correspondent, however, observed that unlike a few years ago when those strip clubs were full to the brim, the patronage seems to have dwindled.
Wall Street on Allen, for instance operates only on weekends for now, while patrons in Villa and Teazers seem to have drastically reduced.
However, at Didoz, Unique Gents Club and Ocean Blue, patronage seem to be good.
Most strip clubs in Lagos have adopted nightclub and cabaret-style unlike in Europe and America where they also adopt bar and theatre-style.
Although American-style strip clubs began to appear outside of North of America after World War Two, arriving in Asia in the late 1940s and Europe in 1950, in Lagos, they have been operating for many years.
But since the Lagos State House of Assembly legalised them about three years ago, they have been multiplying across the state. They advertise on major roads and no longer hide as they did in the past.
Many of them now pay taxes and attract more girls who are no longer ashamed of dancing nude.
As of 2005, the size of global strip club industry was estimated to be 75 billion US dollars. In 2002, the size of U.S. strip club industry was estimated to be 3.1 billion dollars, generating 19 percent of the total gross revenue in the legal adult entertainment.
Second filings and state liquor control records available at that time indicated that there were at least 2,500 strip clubs in the United States. In Nigeria, information about strip clubs remains murky and health status of the dancers is not often known as they remain unregistered.
Some may be having sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/Aids and may be transmitting them to their patrons who may be transmitting them to others.
—Simon Ateba
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