Along major streets, on pavements beside the roads, on pedestrian bridges, and on notices posted on buildings and walls around the metropolis, there is almost always a note asking you to call a particular number or visit a website should you need a “sugar mummy”.
Even though initial information gathered by Saturday Tribune identified Ebute Metta and Gbagada as the major hubs for the business, residents in those areas who were contacted last week said they were not aware.
“I have lived in this area (Ebute Metta) for more than twenty years now,” said Thomas Nwike who owns a fashion shop close to Alagomeji. “I know there are sugar mummies everywhere in Lagos; but I don’t think that this place is their headquarters or anything like that.”
Covert affair
It is not often possible to reach a sugar mummy directly, as many of them are represented by “agents.” It is the responsibility of these agents to “screen” prospective “sugar boys” and present them to the women.
According to findings by Saturday Tribune, the boys are expected to be handsome, reliable, trustworthy, and “durable” in bed. The more influential women prefer university students or recent graduates who are unemployed.
The sugar boy’s fee is negotiable. Where the sugar mummy takes extra interest in him, she usually “buys” him off, by paying a large sum of money to the agent. For one-offs, however, payment is made per night, and it ranges from N80, 000 to N180, 000, depending on the status of the sugar mummy and the “quality” of the sugar boy.
Organised fraud
Our investigation, however, shows that this “venture” has been infiltrated by a large network of fake agents who, on a daily basis, con unsuspecting “sugar boys” out of thousands of money.
Most of these agents are active on the internet, where several websites are dedicated entirely for this purpose. Indeed, information gleaned from a number of general dating websites showed that requests for sugar mummies and sugar boys are dominant.
For example, on adsafrica.com.ng, as of midday on Thursday, the category “Women Looking for Men in Lagos” had 1,344 requests, while “Men Looking for Women in Lagos” had only 667.
To understand better how this business operates, Saturday Tribune, posing as a prospective customer, contacted one of the agents and requested help to meet a sugar mummy.
The first agent who identified herself as Mrs Ruth spoke briskly, above what sounded like generator sounds in the background.
After she had determined that the person on the phone was unemployed, young, handsome, educated, and could last a minimum of four hours in bed, she said: “I will get you a sugar mummy. She is a fine woman who is very rich. You will like her. Just send me N500 recharge card. I will use it to call her and arrange for the two of you to meet. The money you will get from her is N80 000, per night. After this call, send me a text message. Include your name, age, location, and the recharge card I told you about. I will call you after I have talked with the madam, ok?”
When she did not immediately receive the text message she had asked for, she called, and when she was told the whole plan was still being considered, she lost her cool.
“You’re not serious. You think I have your time, abi? Nonsense-man!”
Photo: Courtesy exclusivemummy.com
A second agent whose mobile number appeared up to eight different times on a website identified himself as Mr Mark. Most of the questions he asked were similar to those asked by Ruth. But when Saturday Tribune observed that N500 was too much for him to use to set up the meeting, he brought it down to N400.
“You see, I want to help you,” he said. “You said you’re not employed, and I just want to help you. Just send the recharge card. Then send your full name, location and the hotel where you want to meet your sugar mummy. I will call her and you can meet her, even tomorrow. She will pay you N180,000 for the night, and you can pay us N40, 000 from it.”
Mr Mark seemed the better choice; and so, the recharge card and all the information he requested were promptly sent to him. Two minutes after, he called back, and sounded quite pleased.
“I got your text message,” he said. “Thanks. But there is a form you have to fill. It’s eight thousand naira only. I will send you my account number. If you can pay early tomorrow, I will meet you at 12pm at the hotel with the form. The sugar mummy will be there too. She is a rich woman; just tell her what you want; don’t be afraid; she will help you. She has companies, and since you said you’re a graduate, she can even help you get a job.”
Asked if it would be possible to pay him upon receipt of the N180, 000, he said, “No, this N8,000 must be paid before you meet her. It is for your form. The sugar mummy will bring the form to the hotel for you to fill. But because I know you are not employed, I can take N5,000 from you and I will use my N3,000 to complete it for you.”
There were several contradictions in his story. At a point he said the form would be brought to the hotel by him; at another he said it would be brought by the sugar mummy herself. Meanwhile, his text message which arrived minutes later read: “Maneger details: Uzoya, XXX acc 0049288XXX. XXX Bank plc.” Strangely, it did not contain the name “Mark.” Even more puzzling, a caller-identity application (Truecaller) identified the owner of Mark’s mobile number as “XXX Adebayo”.
When he was never contacted again nor paid the agreed sum, he continued to call throughout the day. When, however, he was finally contacted later in the day on Thursday and confronted with all the conflicting facts, he flared up:
“I was just trying to help you, and you are talking rubbish. You have to be a man… you have to be a man… What are you talking…? You have to be a man…” He spoke mostly the same words for a long time, repeating “You have to be a man” many times.
Caring mothers
There is, it would seem, a variant of this practice which, observers say, is beginning to gain ground in parts of Lagos and beyond. Mr Kola Aderibigbe, an engineer who lives at Ogba, Lagos, on Wednesday, told Saturday Tribune that this type (called “caring mother”) revolves around a woman whose husband has abandoned “because she is richer and arrogant”.
“In a way, their husbands have set them free,” Aderibigbe explained. “It may be because she is proud, or because she is running after other men, or so many other reasons. So what the woman does is to find a young man who will move in with her. The man plays the role of father to the woman’s children, while the woman takes care of him financially.”
New world order?
Observers might say that there is something disconcerting about this turn of events. Has the growing influence of women in politics, business and other fields wrought a situation where men have become more willing to sacrifice their traditional position as the “dominant sex”?
However, Joshua Omidire, who recently completed a postgraduate programme in English at the University of Lagos, attributed this shift to the economic situation in the country.
“We all know that the boy has no need for enjoyment of sex with those older women; his girlfriend will give him that. What is important is money. So, unemployment is one of the factors that lead these young guys into it. Young guys actually wake up in the morning and go to their place of work which is a sugar mummy’s apartment.
“What is the shame when you can’t feed your belly and an older woman offers you sexual pleasure and money? People don’t write it on their foreheads. Many of the big boys in town are sex slaves of sugar mummies.”
February 13 2017 Maria Lynn Baker has been arrested for allegedly filming her sexcapades with boys aged 12 and 14 in a public toilet,she was held by police in Florida early Saturday morning on two counts of lewd and lascivious battery. Agents from Ocala Police Department were called to an argument where a woman is believed to have shown cops footage of Baker having sex with an underage boy,28-year-old Maria was arrested by Detective Melissa Buetti on suspicion of having sex with a pair of underage boys in a public convenience.Buetti was told Baker was having sex with two 12- to 14-year-old boys inside a toilet at the War Memorial, in Silver Springs Boulevard, according to OPD officials. Police told the newspaper that she could face more charges, as they believe there could be additional victims.
Suspected Internet fraudsters, popularly called Yahoo boys , have turned the Facebook page of the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police Force into an avenue to advertise their skills. The suspects, through a series of comments, demanded between N5,000 and N50,000 from those who wanted to learn classified sites for defrauding people, especially foreigners, and offered options of online, as well as physical teaching platforms. Hundreds of persons, including students, graduates and ladies, indicated interest in learning the skills for making quick money and provided their mobile numbers on the SFU Facebook page. The comments were reactions to a post by the SFU sensitising the public to Internet fraud. The unit in the post tagged, 'Common Tricks Yahoo boys use to Swindle Foreigners Revealed,' had warned people against falling victims of the fraudsters. The post read in part, "One of the tricks they use in swindling foreigners is called 'Freestyle.' The Freestyle tri...
For more than five decades, the black-and-white image of Irene Garza has haunted the town of McAllen, Tex., her story painfully recounted again and again. She was a 25-year-old dark-haired former beauty queen, her high school's first Latina drum majorette, the first in her family to graduate from college. She was named Miss All South Texas Sweetheart, and worked as a teacher for disadvantaged children. But at the center of Garza's life was her Catholic faith. In a letter to a friend in April 1960, she wrote about how she was no longer afraid of death. "You see, I've been going to communion and Mass daily and you can't imagine the courage and faith and happiness it has given me," she wrote in the letter, according to Texas Monthly. And so when Holy Week came, the most sacred time of year for Catholics, Garza decided to go to confession. On the eve of Easter, she drove to the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen. She never came h...
Friday Ejemai, 34, and his lover, Blessing David have been arrested and charged before a Lagos court for allegedly attacking and stabbing his elder sister, Helen over their late father's property, Pmexpress reports. It was gathered that this happened after the Edo State-born Friday met Blessing who is from Calabar in Cross River State. Blessing reportedly engaged him in "hot" sex and he decided to sell their late father's property to marry her. According Friday, he met Blessing 7 months ago and he was deeply in love with her and wanted to marry her to beat other men. However, the obstacle to achieve his desire was lack of funds because he reportedly sold his commercial bus after he met her and used the money to sustain their relationship. Friday thereafter met with his mother and other members of his family at their family house in Ikotun, and informed them of his intention to marry Blessing. He suggested that their late father's house be sold and the proceeds sha...
My wife is dating my pastor and brother —Husband THE TEXT MESSAGES HE SAW WERE FORGED —WIFE Metro Worried by his wife’s adulterous acts, Mr Kolawole Okeeyi, has approached the Igando Customary Court in Lagos State to dissolve his 31-year-old marriage. According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Okeeyi accused his wife, Funmilayo, with whom he had five children of infidelity. “My wife is having an affair with my pastor, I got to know when I did not have credit on my phone and wanted to use her phone to call our pastor to report her for starving my mother of food. “I picked her phone and I saw on the screen “sent message” I mistakenly press it and the message opened, I saw several love messages my wife sent and received from our pastor. “I showed her the messages when she came in, but she begged me, I seized the phone and later confronted our pastor with those text messages, but he told me to do my worst. “I also caught her with my brother in a ...
Two armed robbers were reportedly shot dead in a gun battle with the Kano State Police command and gang of robbers who shot a Police Patrol vehicle along Kano/Zaria road at a point close to Garun Mallam Village arrested. This was revealed in a statement signed by the command 's spokesperson , DSP . Magaji Musa Majia . According to him , the superior response officers attached to the Patrol van gunned down the robbers and sent the rest running. He further stated that one locally made AK 47 rifle , 1 revolver pistol, 12 live ammunition , charms and torchlight were recovered. A total of 13 members of the armed robbery gang that specializes in car/motorcycle snatching were also paraded by the police command. Read the full Statement below : " Two members of armed robbery syndicate namely Yusuf Umar,30 years old of Tokarawa Village and Amadu Mohammed 33 yrs of Kankan Village both in Gezawa LGA were arrested at Tokarawa Qtrs Kano while on robbery operation.1 locally made assault rifl...
My wife is cantankerous, denied me sex for 8 years —Husband •He has turned me into punching bag —Wife January 28, 2017 Crime & Court An Aba-na-Ohazu Customary Court, near Aba, has dissolved a 33–year-old marriage between Eugene Okoli and his wife, Harrieth, on grounds of denial of conjugal rights and irrational behaviour. According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the dissolution of the marriage, contracted in 1983, followed a suit filed by Okoli, claiming that his wife had been behaving irrationally and had denied him sex for eight years running. “My wife is cantankerous and nagging, without justifiable cause. She has for over eight years now denied me my conjugal rights. “She now reacts to me in a despicable manner, which I think is intolerable. And all the efforts I have made to reconcile with her have failed because of her intransigence. “From her ways of doing things now, it is clear that there is no more love existing between us,” he subm...
To Bring Forth Fruit A daily devotion for April 4th From your friends at RayStedman.org Read: Genesis 1:9-13 And God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear. And it was so (Genesis 1:9). God's act in calling the land up out of the oceans seems to mark the period of evening in this third day. During this period we have the rising of the continents, the weathering of the rocks, and the soil forming gradually to make preparation for the plant life that is to follow. But remember that all this on the physical level is but a manifestation of the parallel spiritual and moral reality, and every view of nature ought to speak volumes to us about who God is, what He does, and what He intends. These things are at once real and visible and, at the same time, the picture of something unseen that r...
Fiance accused of murdering children’s author Helen Bailey ‘sent bogus texts from her mobile and received £12,000 from her account’ Ian Stewart denies drugging the writer and dumping her body with the family dog in a cesspit at their £1.5 million home 13th February 2017, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) COMME THE fiancé accused of murdering kid’s author of Helen Bailey has today been accused of sending her bogus texts and lying to her loved ones following her disappearance. Ian Stewart flooded the Electra Brown writer’s phone with messages despite initially having possession of it and supposedly knowing she was in the hands of kidnappers, a court heard. SWNS:SOUTH WEST NEWS SERVICE 5 Helen Bailey was found dead in a cesspit with her fiance Ian Stewart now standing trial accused of her murder SWNS:SOUTH WEST NEWS SERVICE 5 The 51-year-old’s body, and that of her beloved miniatur...
Hili Sobol (right)in court, and her murdered twin sister, Shiri (left). Tel Aviv teen, boyfriend charged for fatally stabbing twin sister 'over 130 times' Murder of Tel Aviv woman by twin sister, boyfriend was premeditated, police say Tel Aviv teen retracts confession, says she didn't kill twin sister An Israeli woman was sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison in the murder of her twin sister. Shiri Sobol was convicted of soliciting the murder of her twin sister Hili Sobol in February. The murderer, Shiri's boyfriend David Eran, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Tel Aviv District Court. Eran was also ordered to pay 258,000 shekels ($73,200) in compensation to the mother of the two women. The sentences were part of a plea bargain agreement reached with Eran and Sobol. Hili and Shiri, 18-years-old at the time of the murder – as was Eran, fought often, eventually causing an "intense hatred" in Shiri toward Hili, states the original indictment filed ...
Comments
Post a Comment