A legal practitioner and rights activist, Mbasekei Martin Obono, has urged the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to legalise prostitution.

In a telephone interview with Pulse, Obono says the decriminalisation of prostitution would reduce crime while protecting the basic human rights of individuals.

The rights activist who condemned the recent raid on clubs as well as arrest and alleged rape of women by the Police in Abuja noted that armed robbers would no longer see prostitutes as “partners in crime” if the trade is properly regulated.

“I think it is time to legalise prostitution in Nigeria; our society will be better for it,” Obono said.

“If this is done, every prostitute in Nigeria will have an identification number which would make it easy for them to be trailed in the event of a crime. Also, armed robbers won’t see prostitutes as easy partners in crime.

“Right now, armed robbers use prostitutes to operate. If a prostitute knows that she can be traced, she will desist from crime. If it's an app or website where it shows that ‘Mr X’ is picking ‘Miss A’ the issue of girls being killed and body parts mutilated would reduce drastically.

“If the amount for registration to be licensed is raised so high, say 400,000, girls would think of investing that money in business rather than prostitution. By doing this, prostitution becomes expensive to practice,” he added.

A medical doctor, Adekemi Ayodeji, however, says the legalisation of prostitution would promote the spread of diseases.

Ayodeji noted that the decriminalisation of prostitution would further lead to a drop in the moral standard of the society.

"Prostitution has more disadvantages than the advantages," she said. "If prostitution is made legal in Nigeria, diseases would spread faster and more people who have been secretly engaging in the act would openly and proudly practise it.

"No one wants to have a child who will end up a prostitute," she declared.

The 1999 Constitution (as amended) is silent on prostitution in Nigeria.

However, sections 223 of the Criminal Code states that: “Any person who procures a girl or woman who is under the age of eighteen years to have unlawful carnal connection with any other person or persons, either in Nigeria or elsewhere;

“Or procures a woman or girl to become a common prostitute, either in Nigeria, or elsewhere;

“Or procures a woman or girl to leave Nigeria with intent that she may become an inmate of a brothel elsewhere;

“Or procures a woman or girl to leave her usual place of abode in Nigeria, with intent that she may, for the purposes of prostitution, become an inmate of a brothel, either in Nigeria or elsewhere; is guilty of a misdemeanour, and is liable to imprisonment for two years.

“A person cannot be convicted of any of the offences defined in this section upon the uncorroborated testimony of one witness.”

The offender may be arrested without a warrant.

Also, chapter 532 of the Penal Code, Act of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, 1990, criminalises prostitution and solicitation of prostitutes.

The law states that: “An ‘Idle person’ shall include a common prostitute behaving in a disorderly or indecent manner in a public place or persistently importuning or soliciting persons for the purpose of prostitution.

“The term vagabond shall include any male person who knowingly lives wholly or in part on the earning of a prostitute or in any public place solicits or importunes for immoral purposes; and

“Whoever is convicted as a vagabond shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to two years or with fine which may extend to four hundred and fifty naira or both.”

So far, prostitution has been decriminalised in twelve countries. They include; Denmark, Finland, Costa Rica, Argentina, Canada and Belgium.

Others are; France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands and Spain.