Police, NGO fly in two Nigerians trafficked to Libya – I was forced to abort 320 pregnancies – Abigail

The last has not been heard of Alhaji Muritala Sanni and his wife Alhaja Lateefat Sanni who runs a human trafficking syndicate alleged to be luring young girls from Nigeria to Libya for prostitution.

The Daily Times crime desk exclusively reported in March that the police, assisted by a private detective agency have successfully rescued a 26-year-old nurse who identified herself as Abigail, and two other trafficked victims (names withheld); they were flown into the country last week from Libya.

Abigail who said she is an orphan, told our correspondent she was trained as an auxiliary nurse in Nigeria but was lured to the syndicate by her friend while in search of greener pastures to carter for the needs of her siblings.

She told security officials that the syndicate promised her a nursing job in Italy but she ended up aborting pregnancies in a brothel in Libya.

Our crime desk gathered that Abigail had spent three years in Libya before she was rescued by the Alliance of Rights Defenders (ARD), a Lagos based NGO who burst the human trafficking syndicate and have thus far rescued five girls trafficked for prostitution.

Looking ill and currently receiving treatment, Abigail expressed great joy at returning home.

“I am an orphan and I live with my siblings in Baylesa state which is also my home town.  After my parents’ death, the responsibility to cater for my siblings fell on me as the eldest child.

“Sometimes in 2013, my sister’s friend Nursi came to our house in Bayelsa and saw me resting. She told me I was looking bored. Nursi then told me to come over to Lagos to meet her, that she will introduce me to people that will assist me financially. I was interested, so I travelled to Lagos to see Nursi.

“Nursi took me to see one Alhaja Lateefat and her husband Alhaji Muritala Sanni. They asked me what I can do and I told them I was a trained auxiliary nurse. They assured I can make good money as an auxiliary nurse in Italy.

“I told them I had only worked as an auxiliary nurse in Nigeria but they assured me they have connections in Italy. I was asked to pay N10,000 for passport. After I paid the amount, Alhaji Muritala took two other ladies with me to see a herbalist called Ewe.

“Ewe put dry gin inside a concoction pot and mixed it with some a black fish. He gave three of us to eat the concoction. Alhaji Muritala then took us to the bus park and we travelled to Kano by road.

“We met other agents who later moved us by road through the desert to Libya. I was scared and each time I asked them when the plane will come to take us to ltaly, the agent will tell me that we have to pass through desert first. At the end, we landed in Libya and Alhaji Muritala told us that we have reached our destination, and that was where our ordeal began: they locked us up in one room with fifty other girls. We were not allowed to go out and they beat us mercilessly if we attempt to escape.”

The traumatised Abigail said because she refused to sleep with men in their brothel, she was then asked to abort pregnancies for the trafficking syndicate. She said she had to do it against her will.

“I was later moved from the room where I stayed with other girls to a private room where I was locked up. Alhaji Muritala and his wife control two brothels. One is called ‘New York Up’ and the other is called ‘White House’. I was in New York Up alone in a room where they have kept surgical instruments for me to abort pregnancies.

“Each day, they bring girls to my room to have me about their pregnancies. Alhaja Lateefat does not allow the girls to abort when they are one month pregnant. She waited until the pregnancies are up to four months and then forced me to abort for the girls.

“These girls were deceived by the couple that they are bringing them to Italy to work as hairdressers and tailors. Some of the girls are as young as 9 – 15 years and they are forced to sleep with men as old as fifty years without protection.

“There was a day I was moved with sympathy and I assisted a 9-year-old girl to escape. I got beaten whenever I refuse to abort for the girls. Alhaja Lateefat will use mopping stick to beat me mercilessly. By my count, I have aborted three hundred and twenty pregnancies. The teenage girls also told me they used cucumber to disvirgin them before they are forced to sleep with men. These men are usually criminals but Alhaja Lateefat and Alhaji Muritala do not care. All they are after is money and more money.”

Abigail further narrated how she and other girls were forced to part with millions of naira before they were freed by the gang. “I became fed up with the situation in the brothel and I went to meet Alhaja Lateefat to give me freedom but she beat me up and said I have to pay her N2.4 million before I can go.

“I had to look for that money because she said that’s what the other girls paid and since I don’t have parents or any relations to send the money to her, then I should work for it if I want to get my freedom. God helped me and brought two men who paid the money.

“These men are armed robbers and whenever they come to visit me, I take from their money and pay gradually until I paid up the N2.4 million. Alhaja Lateefat and her husband still owe me N1.5 million for the work I did for them. It is sad that I did not come back with anything to show for my three years labour in Libya. They took my money and put this sickness in me.

“In January this year I became very ill and I told Alhaji Muritala I cannot continue this work, but he refused to pay me my money. I got help from a church through the assistance of Alliance of Rights Defenders (ARD) to come back to Nigeria. I and two other girls were brought back by air on March 11th. We are very ill and need government help.”

Following the revelations of the victims, The Daily Times gathered on good source that the NGO had since petitioned the Inspector General of Police, IGP Solomon Arase to arrest members of the fleeing syndicate and rescue other girls still held in Libya.

A top police source confirmed that the IGP has since directed the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos, AIG Bala Hassan to investigate the syndicate as well as one Inspector Bola Yusuf who assisted the key suspects to escape arrest.

Barrister Ojay Akinwale, the Chief Executive Officer of ARD said, “We have taken the responsibility to cater for the treatment of the ladies since we flew them back to Nigeria. These ladies are ill and in urgent need of medication and rehabilitation following the ordeal they have passed through.”

Prince Tunji Oshokoya, a private investigator who worked with ARD to locate the girls in Libya and also assisted in returning them to Nigeria urged government to help rescue the other girls. “We are also working hard to fish out other members of the cartel. It is sad that as a result of our pressure and media reports on the trafficking ring, the syndicate has started selling and distributing the girls in their two brothels to other cartels in other countries. Government should wake up and take human trafficking seriously and stop those behind this evil business.”