Nude club owners dare Fashola
By JOSSY IDAM
After a recent early morning raid and closure, new nude nightclubs have staged a come back in Ikeja, the capital city of Lagos. The strip bars now operate without names, signpost and permanent home. With their usual bevy of pretty strip teasers, two new nude nightclubs entertained their ever-willing patrons all night long last Sunday and Tuesday.
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Show must go on
Never a dull place, hot hangouts in the city were abuzz with words of the return of the good, old, red, raunchy joints. By word of mouth and coded x-rated text messages, patrons were told where, when to come and be quickly taken to the main venue. “Please no rude intrusion and embarrassment. Security and entertainment is 100 percent pure water.” The coded message read in part.
The gate
Last Sunday, boys in blue jeans on major street corners guided patrons to a storey building on Ogundana Street, off Allen Avenue, Ikeja. Two hefty bouncers frisked people at the entrance and collected N2, 000 gate fee before ushering them into a large parlour with a detachable wooden platform in the centre.
With personal mementos around the joint – dry petals of flowers in small glass bowls tooth brushes, soap dishes and hair combs in a toilet – it is obvious the show was hurriedly put up in someone’s apartment.
At 9.18p.m, the dimly lit joint was full. A deejay cum comedian climbed the platform and reeled out some wacky jokes. Girls in high-heeled shoes, G-strings and slinky top cat-walked around, collected orders and served drinks.
Flat rate
Nothing much changed. A glass of beer, Guinness, Chapman, Smirnof Ice, Gordons Spark and minerals went for N500. A tot of brandy and whiskey sold at the same price. But a full bottle of Hennessy, Johnny Walker, Campari and other spirits went for N20, 000.
Naked Testimony
At 9.27 p.m. Sunday evening, the tempo of music in the joint changed. Lights went out. Strobe lights on the ceiling whirred above. Cued by Bracket’s hit song: “Yori-Yori”, a tall, leggy girl who wore only a string of beads around her waist danced to the stage. After a while, she tore off the string of beads and hustled her stuff stark nude. As the tempo of the song increased, the pulse rate of patrons ogling the girl raised with the song: “…Your-love-makes-my-heart-go-yori-yori…”
Lap dance
Six other girls took turns to dance naked on the stage. Each of them crowned their performance by dancing off stage and jumping on the lap of any patron of their choice. The girls sat astride the patrons, squirmed on their laps and moan erotically. Out of sheer excitement, some men get carried away and reward the dancers with wads of naira notes. Some, of course, take liberties – touching the girls tentatively and suggestively.
Coded
The strip teasing, belly, lap dancing, and wining did not end until the wee hours of the next morning. But before the patrons dispersed, the dancers and officials of the club passed words round that there would be an encore mid week and elsewhere.
“Just drive to the GRA, Ikeja, Tuesday night. The boys will bring you to the place. We’ll shift venue and keep you posted,” the
Deejay announced.
On Tuesday evening, messages at popular bars around had it that the boys who would guide patrons to yet another new nude joint would wear Adire jumpers and say: “How far?” to passers-by. The password was “Near!”
Defiance
The boys in Adire led old and new patrons to a bungalow, located off Isaac John and close to the Police Officers’ Mess at Ikeja, GRA. Apart from the joint’s large courtyard, the interior decors give the place out as a personal apartment. Makosa music played non-stop. X-rated movies on two flat TV sets on the walls of joint whetted the lusty appetite of the patrons. About 10 girls took turns to perform naked on a Persian rug.
Bad timing
One of the managers of the club told Sunday Sun the raid on nude clubs by the Lagos State Task Force on Environment and Special Offences was ill-timed: “You see, the whole thing’s bad bele. This is business and you know that the Moslem festival, Christmas and New Year are around the corner. We’ve made huge investments and they are trying to spoil it,” the manager said.
Told the state task force may be trying to safeguard public morality, the manager again rose in defence of the club and nude girls: “See, look around you here. There’s no child or teenager around. Men and women are properly screened before they come in here. So, we’re all consenting adults catching our fun. No one here is running naked on the street. Everything begins and ends within the confines of the club. The raid and arrest of our girls is absolutely wrong. We‘ve neither violated the law of the land nor the constitution.”
A patron who craved anonymity accused the state government of wasting public funds and chasing shadows. “Go anywhere in the world, all the big cities which Lagos is struggling to be like have nude clubs where adults go to unwind. We’re all responsible people. To my mind, the state government is simply wasting money disturbing innocent, harmless people,” the patron argued.
Ember month
The nude clubs in Lagos always get bashed and knocked around every November by Lagos State authorities. On November 9, 2008, Sunday Sun broke a story on Ocean Blue, a daylight nude club located on Opebi Road, Ikeja. It coincidentally got sealed up days later. On July 12, 2009, we also ran another expose on another nude club, Wall Street Pub, tucked in at 70B Allen Avenue; the Lagos State Task Force closed the joint town.
On Tuesday, November 3, 2009, the authorities swooped down on similar red-light joints, namely: Cazzbah, Club Unique and Magic City. During the raid, some managers of the clubs and 33 nude dancers were arrested and detained for eight days.
Speaking to Sunday Sun on phone, the Public Relations Officer of the task force, Mr. Tayo Ashagba said the strip teasers have been granted bail by a Lagos State Mobile court. “The girls constitute nuisance. Their managers will produce them whenever they are wanted in court,” he said and switched off.
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