A border patrol base affiliated with the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in Yauri, Kebbi State rescued a mother with six children and two teenage girls, who were on their way to Libya.
According to the Nigerian newspaper, THIS DAY, the NIS Kebbi State Command disclosed that the 35-year-old mother was identified as Adedoyin Awoyele, with the two teenage girls as Khadijat Babalola, and Risikat Ganiyu.
The information was released by the Comptroller of the NIS Kebbi Command, Rabi Nuhu, while handing over to officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) at the NIS Office in Birnin Kebbi.
The three victims were from Lagos Nigeria, and the Oluyole region of Ibadan in Oyo State. Human traffickers arranged for them to travel to Libya via Sokoto, but they were stopped on the way at the Kebbi border guard base in Yauri.
Nuhu stated that during interrogation, two of the victims, Adedoyin and Khadijat, revealed to Immigration officers that they were travelling to Libya at the invitation of their Libyan friends.
She stated that the third victim, Risikat, claimed she was travelling to Sokoto to visit her sister. The command believes that she was also planning to relocate to Libya.
Rabiu said the NIS, “has established that the human trafficking victim’s contacts are in Libya awaiting their arrival.”
She lamented that “it was unfortunate that despite our efforts, people are still being apprehended on a daily basis in their desperate bids to move to Libya where they are being dehumanized and used for horrible purposes. We are not doing this on our own but to protect the victims of human trafficking. The United Nations is also worried over what happened to many of the victims in their bids to move to Libya.”
“They are being butchered and their hearts and kidneys removed. Imagine this woman with six children. Why is she going to Libya instead of her to stay at home and take care of her children? We are handing over the victims to NAPTIP. We are empowered by Parts 10 and 11 of the 2015 Immigration Act on smuggling and human trafficking, and will not relent in our efforts to stop human trafficking from Nigeria.”
While answering questions from journalists, Adedoyin and Khadijat said their friends in Libya promised to get them house help jobs if they could make it to Libya.
“I have six children back in Lagos State (Nigeria). But I need to survive. The quest for survival pushed me to take the risk of moving to Libya even when I read about the dangers on Facebook,” Adedoyin said.
While receiving the victims, the NAPTIP Kebbi office in Nigeria vowed to conduct a thorough investigation and apprehend the culprits. “We will commence counselling and rehabilitation for the victims, before we reunite them with their families.”