The instigation for the two young women’s journey are familiar: To seek greener pastures and start a new life in the Western world, from Europe to America. 19-year-old Lamidi Basirat from Oyo, was promised a hairdressing career in the US, while Yusuf Hafsat Omobolanle, aged 32 and a trained nurse based in Lagos, was assured of a lucrative nursing job also in the US. But both women, like others they met over there, were only being lured into prostitution in Libya.
Despite the stringent laws against human trafficking in the country, and the fight against this racket by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), the illegitimate business still flourishes in different cities and hinterlands, with a huge syndicate of human traffickers specialised in luring young girls from indigent homes with the promise of greener pastures which eventually turns out a prostitution ring. That was the fate of Basirat and Omobolanle until the NGO, Alliance for Rights Defender came to their rescue.
“Madam Ebunoluwa promised to help me travel to the United States”
Recounting her experience, one of the victims, Basirat revealed to Crime Guard that her ordeal started when one of her father’s former tenants in Oyo, Amokeyemi, promised to help her travel to the United States of America.
“I had not finished secondary school when I travelled to Libya last year December. I was just in SS2. It was Amokeyemi, one of our former tenants, that told me that Madam Ebunoluwa lives abroad and would assist me to travel to America, and my parents agreed. After that, they collected N520,000 from my parents which they said was for the procurement of my travelling documents. They told me that I would be a hairdresser.
“Amokeyemi and I thereafter travelled from Oyo down to Lagos. And both of us went to the National Theatre in Lagos to meet Madam Ebunoluwa, who was also simply addressed as Alhaja, and her parents: Alhaji Muritala and Alhaja Latifat, his wife.
“Initially, they said I would board a flight to America, but when the journey actually started, I found out that it was through land that I would be travelling. We took a night bus to Kano, from there boarded another vehicle to Agadex, in Niger Republic.
“On our way, I met other girls. We sat at the back of a Hilux jeep. We were given garri, groundnut, five litres of water and sugar. There were about 25 of us inside the jeep, and there were over 30 jeeps conveying people to Libya.
“Madam Ebunoluwa gave us blankets, head warmers, socks and hand gloves. We met security officials of Niger, who beat us up, collected our valuables and money and raped some of us too, while using their phones to take pictures of our nakedness. According to them, the reason they beat us up was because they knew that most of us were being trafficked to Libya for prostitution.
“When eventually we got to Tripoli, in Libya, I met a relative of Madam Ebunoluwa, and I saw over a hundred girls of different ages.”
“It was a terrible journey and several people died.”
(Vanguard)
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And you couldn't call back home to reveal what was the exact situation of things.
ReplyDeleteWho una won deceive.? Na lie una know say na ashawo work una dey go do. No be Edo una be.It is from Edo them dey gather these ashawo from different part of Nigeria before moving them to other countries
ReplyDelete