A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Regional Councillor, Wazeer Latiff, is imploring the relevant authorities and residents of Essequibo to report people who are in the habit of soliciting young girls for life in the hinterland as prostitutes.
Wazeer Latiff
Latiff’s comments came in light of a recent incident involving a 16-year-old former Essequibo Technical Institute student, whom he and a colleague were forced to rescue.
The councillor explained that the student, who came to the Region to attend the Technical Institute at Anna Regina was picked up outside of the Institute’s compound by a car driver, who later took her to Georgetown and then to Mahdia to work as a prostitute.
The teenager, Latiff said, had attended the Essequibo Technical Institute for almost two years but quit school because she struggled to learn.
The teenager, who confided in Latiff, disclosed that she was not comfortable with the proposal the man made to her in the hinterland and returned the $80,000 he offered her. He said the man then refused to escort the teenager back to the Essequibo Coast.
The stranded teenager was forced to make her way back to the Coast as best she could. Latiff said that the teenager was forced to sell a gold chain she was wearing as well as a finger ring to foot her travelling expenses back to the Coast.
Upon her return, Latiff said, the teenager was rescued by one of his female colleagues, who took her in for one week. He said that contact was made with the teenager’s parents in Region One, and he and his colleague managed to raise the necessary fare.
Latiff said that similar cases involving business persons recruiting young girls to work in the interior continue to surface in the Region and efforts to address the issue must be treated with seriousness by all involved.