According to Punch about six
Nigerian women were returned from Burkina Faso where they were allegedly taken
to for prostitution 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 Fasso, and 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.
Culled from Punch
They know he reason why they are in bukina faso, they should stop iying is common knowledge
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