Inside Lagos strip clubs

Weird,wacko, inordinate choice, just anything; such opinions matter little to her. For 28 year old Anastasia, tall, chocolate colour, endowed with well rounded mammary glands and other feminine attributes that are the nemesis of men, it appears nothing will separate her from the love of strip dancing. The young golden-haired lady is indeed hooked on her chosen profession.

With gusto, she declares, “I love it die. Strip dancing brings out the weirdness in me, especially when I see men watch with open mouths and salivate as if they could devour me any moment. It fills me with sense of power to get such rapt attention; only God knows what goes on in their minds. For me, I just do my thing, have fun, get paid and move on.” Ann as she is simply called, however, objected to her picture being taken. “Nobody knows I do this; even my parents or relatives do not know. Even the name I told you was not my real name. It is my business name. But that’s how I make ends meet.”

Strip clubs everywhere

Strip clubs are not new in Lagos. What is new is how the clubs are invading nooks and crannies of the centre of excellence. In 2009, some of these clubs were closed by a Task Force for operating in residential areas without permit. But they were later reopened when the state lawmakers felt that there was nothing illegal about the business.

That action may have emboldened the operators. Investigations by Saturday Sun showed that places like Igando, Ikotun, Egbe, Ajegunle, Okokomaiko, Egbeda, Festac now have enough dose of hotels that operate their own kind of strip club.

At Igando, very close to the main bus stop, is Oxygen Bar and Lounge; close to Iba Estate on Iyana – Iba – Isheri expressway, you find Ibuoye. When this reporter visited Egbe town after hostel bus stop on Ikotun-Egbe road, some young ladies between the ages of 18 and 30 years were seen hanging around. But investigation showed that those ones were resident prostitutes. “I am not a strip dancer”, Beauty, one of the ladies told Saturday Sun, “I hustle here. I have my room inside. I can’t dance naked before all these men. When a man wants to see me, we go inside my room and do it”

On further probing, Beauty said, short time ranges between N1000 and N3000 depending on what the man wants in addition. “The strip dancers come from outside. They are paid around N10,000. And they make more money from the men who sometimes do it with them at the dance floor.”

In these hotels, it is common to see banners hanged at their gates, lavishly designed with photographs of half clad ladies.  “The banners are not mere advertisement puff,” a bar tender told Saturday Sun. “They are tips of the iceberg of the real stuff we can offer. Our girls are carefully selected for maximum satisfaction,” he said. At Ibuoye where a bottle of beer that sells for N300 in the ordinary bar, goes at double the price inside the club, a service boy told the reporter that some of the girls seen were the strippers but were waiting till the club starts proper around 12am to change into their performance regalia.



What they do

Strip dancing also known as pole dancing is about skimpily dressed ladies smooching a silvery pole with ease and twisting their body seductively in a manner of dancing; engaging in erotic dance steps packaged in a manner that the largely male audience can’t resist.

Occasionally, the girls pull up their bikinis and lingerie, revealing sexy and sensuous cleavages to the delight of the male dominated watchers. Aside wriggling around the poles, the half nude girls also serve their patrons with lap dance which is sitting on a client’s lap while performing seductive acts. It was learnt that during the clubbing, sometimes the dancers, when given enough tips, have oral sex with guests. The girls go extra miles to entertain their guests; exhibiting daring tendencies towards clients as they throw themselves at men with ease, allowing free fondling which in most highbrow strip bars are not allowed.