6 Nigerian girls have been returned to the country from Burkina
Faso where they were allegedly taken to work as prostitutes by a woman
named Balikis.
While re-uniting the girls with their parents in Ibadan, Oyo State,
on Wednesday, the Comptroller of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Oyo
State Command, Innocent Akatu, said the girls were tricked to leave
Nigeria, adding that the victims did not tell their parents about the
journey.
Akatu said the girls refused to engage in
prostitution in Ouagadougu, Burkina-Faso, hence were locked in a room by
the trafficker.
He added that their journey back home after three weeks began when one of them escaped and alerted the Burkinabe police.
He said,
“The victims, after being smuggled to
Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, discovered that they were going to be used
for prostitution. They were not even told that they were going to
Burkina Faso. These girls were told that they would be given lucrative
jobs abroad; one of them was told that she was going to manage a
jewellery shop owned by her trafficker.
“One of them was taken from her home in
Ikorodu, Lagos State, and driven to Saki in Oyo State. When she asked
why it had taken them so long to reach the airport, she was told that
the plane had left and that they would have to travel by road.
“The Nigerian embassy assisted in arranging
emergency travelling documents for them to return to Nigeria after
their lucky escape. We have taken them to the hospital for screening and
they are HIV negative.”
One of the returnees, Ganiyat Samuel, said she lived with her grandmother in Ikorodu before she embarked on the journey.
She said, “A woman, called Balikis, came to
me and said that I would make more money as a fashion designer if I
travel outside Nigeria. I told her that I had no passport, but she said
that she would take care of it. I did not tell any of my parents.
“When we got to Saki, she said she could
not get a passport for me because the office had closed. We travelled
for two days to get to Burkina Faso. She took me to her house and told
me that I would have to do HIV test. The test revealed that I was
pregnant, but HIV negative. She told me that she brought me to the
country for prostitution and that I would have to abort the pregnancy. I
refused and she locked me in a room. When she brought another Nigerian a
week later, I helped the girl to escape and she alerted the police. The
police rescued us and arrested the woman.”
Samuel’s mother, Olasunkanmi Afuwape, said her father had died and
after she re-married, she took the girl and her brother to live with her
mother in Ikorodu.
Posts
