Sex workers on the run as colleague dies in Anambra hotel

By Izunna Okafor, Awka

Some sex workers in Anambra State recently took to their heels as their colleague mysteriously died in a hotel room in Onitsha are of the state.

According to reports, the the dead body of the sex worker, simply identified as Chisom, was seen when cleaners went to sweep her room. This led to besieging of the scene by some residents and other customers in the hotel who gathered in bewilderment. However, some of the colleagues of the deceased had packed their belongings and fled the hotel.

Because no wound or injury was found on the corpse, some of the ‘spectators’ suspected that Chisom was strangled by someone, while others argued that she must have committed suicide.

One of her close friends, who did not reveal her identity, however, opined that the deceased might have been strangled by an early caller. She revealed that she (the deceased) had a disagreement with a customer the previous week, who allegedly paid her but she refused to let him copulate with her, as the ‘customer’ threatened to deal with her.

Another eyewitness, 70-year-old woman living around the hotel, identified as Mama Chizoba, wondered why the proprietors of the hotel should allowed other sex workers to take their personal belongings and flee the facility when the matter had not been fully investigated.

She dismissed claims that the deceased might have committed suicide, while insisting that her colleagues who were with her in that hotel had questions to answer.

“It is painful that this kind of death will happen in a notorious hotel like this and the proprietors allowed other prostitutes living there to be vacating the hotel in broad daylight whil the corpse of their colleague has not been removed and when the cause of her death has not been investigated. Why are they running?”

The police from the Central Police Station, Onitsha, who visited the scene at about 12.30pm, left with some officials of the hotel, who later returned.

The corpse was, however, later evacuated by an ambulance from the General Hospital, Onitsha.

Commenting on the incident, the Divisional Police Officer, Central Police Station, Onitsha, Ifeanyi Ibru, said they were aware of it, and further revealed that they had commenced investigations into the matter.