Grandmother nabbed for human trafficking; daughter, son-in-law on the run

A ring of human trafficking network comprising a grandmother based in Nigeria and her daughter and son-in-law based in Libya have been broken up by a human rights group, The Alliance of Rights Defenders (ARD) in collaboration with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).

The Daily Times crime desk gathered that the ring leader, Mrs. Ebunoluwa Bankole, a grandmother, specialises in the recruitment of young ladies within Ogun and Lagos states for her daughter and son in-law, who are known in Lybia as Alhaja Lateefat Sanni and Alhaji Muritala Sanni Raji.

However, the long arm of the law eventually caught up with the trio who are alleged to have successfully trafficked over 100 girls to Libya in the past to feed a lucrative brothel called ‘New York’ in the oil rich Lybia, when some families of trafficked young ladies stormed the offices of The Alliance of Rights Defenders in Lagos with a petition alleging that their daughters had been tricked and illegally trafficked from Nigeria by a family of human traffickers.

Lagos based human rights lawyer and president of ARD, Barrister Ojay Akinwale took our correspondent to the beginning incidents that broke into one of the biggest human trafficking networks in recent times.

“The unfolding drama started when we received a petition from some aggrieved parents who claimed their daughters had been illegally trafficked from Nigeria by a cartel allegedly headed by a couple they identified as Alhaji Muritala Sanni Raji  and his wife, Alhaja  Lateefat Sanni,   both indigenes of Odeda village in Ogun state.

“They also indicted the said Lateefat’s mother, Ebunoluwa Bankole as an alleged member of the cartel operating in Ogun state.

“When I interviewed them, they alleged that Mrs. Bankole is in the business of luring lures girls to Libya for prostitution for her daughter and her son-in-law. In the petition, the names of two young ladies – Hafsat Omobolanle and one Basirat Lamidi, were mentioned as haven been illegally trafficked to Libya.

“Our group engaged the services of a well connected private investigator named Prince Tunji Oshokoya. He was a former crack crime reporter who was trained under the former IGP, Mike Okiro. Oshokoya is also a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police in the United States.

“Following his Investigation, we found out that the two ladies were trafficked illegally with fake passports to Libya by road through the desert by the suspects to Libya to work as prostitutes.

“We also learnt that the cartel collected between N500,000 to N1.5 million to make the journey  after procuring fake passports for them.”

Prince Oshokoya’s account of his investigation was nothing short of espionage.

“After the information from families of two ladies, I rallied support from my international body and stormed Tripoli in Libya where we tracked the girls to a brothel in a place called New York.

“The head of the cartel known there as Baba Tawa and Mama Tawa turned to be Alhaji Muritala Sanni and his wife; they were in charge of the girls in Libya.  This couple are highly connected in Libya and in Abeokuta.

“We lured Mrs Sanni to Nigeria and she was apprehended by the police, but  one police  officer named Yusuf Bola of Ogun state police command, granted her bail after she gave him N500,000.

“She promised to give me millions as bribe to back down from the case but I refused and insisted that the two ladies be returned to Nigeria. She agreed to release them to us after signing an agreement. We made her to free the ladies and returned them to Nigeria.”

“From our Investigation, the couple Alhaji Muritala and his wife run brothels in Libya where over 500 girls are kept for prostitution. These girls live in underground rooms with about twenty of them in each room. One girl can be made to sleep with 10 – 15 men in a day.

“The girls are made to swear to a false oath of secrecy, then their phones and passports are taken so they cannot communicate with their families. We have video recordings of this hell of a brothel they run and we handed the information to NAPTIP.

It’s the height of man’s inhumanity to man and a modern day slavery which should not be allowed to thrive'”.

Narrating the role grandma Ebunoluwa Bankole plays in the cartel, Barrister Akinwale said Ebunoluwa who is the mother of Alhaja Lateefat Bankole helps to lure parents and guardians to allow their daughters to go to Libya.

“She would tell them that the daughters will earn good money doing jobs like hair dressing and tailoring. She will then proceed to take the girls to a shrine were they are made to go through ritual process of allegiance to the couple.

“She also follows her daughter and son-in-law to Lagos to collect money from the innocent girls and their parents that she will help them travel to America with the connection of her daughter.

“Through our investigation, we got the photographs of Alhaji Muritala and Alhaja Lateefat and handed them to NAPTIP.

NAPTIP swung into action and arrested Mrs Bankole, but her daughter escaped.”

One of the victims rescued by the Rights Group identified is Miss Nafsat Omobolanle, an auxiliary nurse confirmed the espionage that rescued her and another victim.

She recalled that at the brothel called ‘New York’ in Libya, “I saw girls dying all the time; the men use cucumber to disvirgin young girls between 13 and 15-years-old in the brothel.  Each girl is made to sleep with men for N10 dina (N1000) for a round of sex, 50 dina for a whole night and the short timers could run into 30 men in one night. It was just horrible.

“Alhaji Sanni told me that if I want to return to Nigeria, I should call somebody to give him N3 million for my release.  I had to find a way to reach my family and called for help. The human rights people came to my rescue and two of us were rescued to Nigeria.”

Home at last!

“Our safe return was by the mercy of God. Alhaja Muritala and his wife had planned for us to be killed on the way but God went ahead of us. He was forced to get a flight for us to return to Nigeria after pressure from the human rights group became unbearable for him and his wife. The plane stopped in Ghana but the human rights group brought us to Nigeria on January 23rd.”

Barrister Ojay Akinwale urged government to see human trafficking as worst than drug trafficking. “We call on the government to arrest and prosecute those behind these human trafficking rings.

“This woman and her husband with others should be arrested by Interpol and brought back to Nigeria to face the wrath of the law. Our government should not treat this matter with kid gloves.”

When The Daily Times visited NAPTIP offices at Oba Ladejobi Street, GRA, Ikeja in Lagos, the Zonal Commander of NAPTIP (South West), Mr. Famakin said his agency is working with international partners to arrest and repatriate Alhaji and Alhaja Sanni back to Nigeria.

“Mrs. Ebunoluwa Bankole is in our custody. She was arrested for human trafficking as a member of a syndicate with her daughter and son-in-law,” he said.