Bauchi State government says it has plans to organise mass weddings for willing sex workers as a way of rehabilitating them.
The state government will also conduct a headcount of all sex workers operating in the state so as to have an accurate data on them.
According to agency report, Aminu Balarabe-Isah, permanent commissioner in charge of Hisbah and Sharia implementation, disclosed these in Bauchi on Monday during a sensitisation workshop organised for sex workers.
The official disclosed that the information gathered from the headcount would assist the commission to come up with measures that would discourage sex workers from continuing their trade.
He further said that preliminary investigations by the agency indicated that some factors contributed to pushing some ladies into the trade. These, according to him, included, illiteracy, poverty, and lack of parental care or maltreatment from step mothers.
He said that the government would make necessary effort to re-unite many of the sex workers with their parents.
In addition, he said the government would organise empowerment programmes for the sex workers as well as provide them with capital to start small-scale businesses.
Responding on behalf of the sex workers, Hafsatu Azare, said they were willing to quit the trade if government could empower them economically.
She described their conditions as deplorable.
