Tomorrow is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. While a lot had been done in the past to speak out against the menace all around the world, yet from statistics, it is clear that the problem is yet to abate. OLALEKAN OLABULO reports
THE Federal Government of Nigeria, through the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and some state governments have dedicated much attention to ending the practice of moving underage girls and young ladies from the country to other countries for prostitution. Much as this collaboration has endured, the practice has continued unabated. The perpetrators of the act, Sunday Tribune learnt, rather than ferreting the girls outside the country have devised new means of using them, many of them underage, for prostitution within the country.
Investigations by Sunday Tribune revealed that underage girls from the South-South states and lately, Benue State, have become a pawn in the hands of unscrupulous traffickers. These individuals, it was said, would lure their unsuspecting victims from their different villages to Lagos and neighbouring states after making mouth-watering offers and promises to change their lives only for the girls to end up in prostitution.
However, it was also gathered that some of the girls were quite aware of what they were going into. This was the shocking revelation of two of the traffickers who were nabbed by the police recently in Lagos. According to them, the girls they trafficked were in the know of the fate awaiting them at their destinations.
As part of the efforts to ensure that the young girls were cowed and become submissive, their bosses usually make them go through a process of oath-taking and initiation rites.
Sunday Tribune also gathered that in cases where traffickers did not tell the girls about what awaited them at their destinations, they ensured the girls run out of cash before doing so by which time they would have no option but to cooperate. Those who declined the offers were pushed out and made to live on the street.
Some of the victims got lucky recently when men of the Lagos police command rescued them from a hotel in the Ajah area of the state, where they had been made to sleep with at least 10 men everyday on a regular basis.
According to the girls, their bosses often set a target of N30,000 for each of them every day. On the few occasions that they did not meet the target, they were harassed and beaten.
The three girls—Chiwendu Onyekachi; Deborah David and Helen Dickson—were among the five victims brought to Lagos by Ikechucwu Egbulefi and his lover Vera John. One of the victims, Onyekachi, while speaking with the Sunday Tribune decried the inhuman treatment that was meted on them by Vera.
“She threatened us. We were two that they brought. The other girl ran away and she (Vera) went to the native doctor to make her run mad. She used to beat us that we don’t make enough money like others girls. That was how she took us to the native doctor,” Onyekachi told Sunday Tribune, adding that “The man took hair from my private parts and my head. She made me swear to an oath that I will die if I ever stole from her. She would make us sleep with so many men and yet leave us with no money.
“I do not even know where the other girl is. I do not know if she ran mad. She is from my village and I have not seen her since that time Mummy Vera told the native doctor to make her mad.”
The victim told Sunday Tribune further that her boss often strike fear in her to make her afraid of running away.
“She put so much fear in me that I could not leave. Each time I wanted to go, I will be afraid that I will die. She used to tell us she had gone to prison and that she was not afraid of anything; that if we ever reported her, she would be in prison and organise our downfall.”
Unfortunately, Onyekachi, like other girls did not tell their parents about their destination before leaving their villages, so it was difficult for their parents to trace them.
“They did not allow me to tell my parents,” Onyekachi continued, “I did not even know I was coming to Lagos that day. I went to Ikechukwu›s house with my brother and it was late. So, I slept over there and the following morning, he said we should go to the ATM. That is the last thing I remember and that was how I got to Lagos and started prostitution.
“They just took me like that. I did not know this was the work they had in mind. I have been there since April. I was working in a restaurant in Port-Harcourt when an area brother told me that I could make more money in Lagos. It was the brother that introduced me to IK (Ikechukwu). I was promised a job in either a supermarket as a sales girl or a cleaner in a hotel where I would be given better salary,” she lamented.
Deborah, another victim, has a similar story. When she got to Lagos she was told blankly that she was there for prostitution and if not satisfied she could return to Port Harcourt but the money given her was obviously inadequate. She chose to stay because she was afraid of life on the street and the threat of being killed by ritualists got to her.
One of the girls who came with her refused to engage in prostitution and threatened to call her sister who lives in Lagos. Their captors decided to drop the girl on the street. Though the girl promised to come back for Deborah, she has not been seen since then.
“The girl promised to return with her sister to get me out but I did not see her, On week days, I sleep with four to six men daily and during weekends, it is between seven and 10. The men used protection. They paid between N3,000 and N5,000 each. Mummy Vera said we had to be making N30,000 daily and when we do not, she beats us.
“The men paid us and she collected the money immediately they leave. She did not give us money. She only gave us food. Men even slept with us when we were menstruating,” she lamented.
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I protected them —Trafficker
Ikechukwu, the prime suspect who trafficked the girls to Lagos before handing them over to his girlfriend, confessed to Sunday Tribune that he was in the business of bringing young girls from the South-South part of the country for prostitution but claimed he always told them beforehand what they were coming for..
He also admitted to have taken the girls to an herbalist in the Ijebu area of Ogun State but insisted that it was for their own good, which was to prevent them from being cheated by Vera.
“It is true that I was the one that brought them to Lagos. I took them and Vera to the herbalist to swear so that she will not disappoint them. They were aware of the kind of job that they would be doing .At this point only the truth can save me .Only God can free me,” he said.
Vera also denied harassing the young girls, insisting that all of them knew what they were coming to do in Lagos.
“They were told before and I also told them when they arrived. Two of them refused, saying they could not do it. So, I took one of them to her sister at Ijebu Ode. I also gave her N2,000. I paid N8,500 for the other girl›s transport. I did not throw her out as they said. I did not make them swear to any oath.
“These ones here did it to get money. The marks on their bodies are for good luck so they can make money. I did not tell the herbalist to make the other girl who ran away, mad. I have never beaten any of them for not meeting up with the ‹10 men a day› target, I am not lying.
“If they can bring the man who did it for them, he will say the truth. I collected the money from them and took record of it. I wrote down the amount spent on feeding (N1800 daily), on the room and their hairdo, I even sent N5,000 to the mother of one of them,” Vera explained.
Do we have ten (10) nights in a day?
Ohun oju nwa loju nrii