Governor Bala Mohammed says his government will conduct a headcount of commercial sex workers in Bauchi just as Ramadan begins in Nigeria.

He said the state needed accurate data on the prostitutes.

Aminu Balarabe-Isah, Permanent Commissioner in charge of Hisbah and Sharia implementation, disclosed this in Bauchi on Monday during a sensitisation workshop organised for commercial sex workers.

He said the information generated from the exercise would help the commission take measures aimed at discouraging them from continuing with their dangerous trade.

Mr Isah disclosed plans by the government to organise empowerment programmes for them and provide them with capital to start small-scale businesses.

He explained that the government’s investigations indicated that most of the prostitutes took to prostitution due to illiteracy, poverty, or maltreatment meted out to them by their stepmothers.

He added that minor family squabbles also contributed to their decision to go into prostitution, assuring that the government would make efforts to reunite them with their parents.

The commissioner expressed the government’s readiness to organise mass marriages for those fortunate to get serious suitors.

Hafsatu Azare, who spoke on behalf of the prostitutes, assured that they were willing to quit prostitution if the government would empower them economically, describing their condition as pathetic.

(NAN)