Police abuse of sex workers in Nigeria: evidence from a qualitative study

Scant public attention has so far been paid to police abuse of sex workers in Nigeria, in spite of the overwhelming evidences of incessant abuse of authority by the Nigeria Police which has led to sexual assault of women and girls during patrol, arrest and detention. Hence, this paper presents an empirical exposition of human rights abuses of street-based sex workers by officers of the Nigeria Police and its inherent public health implications. Qualitative data were collected for the study from 56 street-working commercial sex workers in the red light district of major roads within the city of Ibadan. Police abuse of street-based sex workers was found to be rampant and comes in the form of economic extortion, verbal intimidation, sexual assault, and physical manhandling. The negative condom use habits of officers during sexual assault of the sex workers was identified as having grave public health consequence. The paper ends with the suggestion that the Nigerian authorities, judicial and legal officials, civil society groups and the international community should initiate and support reforms of policy, law and practice in Nigeria that seeks to protect women and girls from rape and other forms of violence perpetrated by state actors.