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RRS nabs suspected human trafficker, rescues victims

By Odita Sunday
06 November 2017   |   4:36 am
The operatives of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested a suspected human trafficker while trying to transport two teenage girls through Lagos to Abidjan in Ivory Coast for commercial sex work.

Trafficking

The operatives of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested a suspected human trafficker while trying to transport two teenage girls through Lagos to Abidjan in Ivory Coast for commercial sex work.

The suspect, Martha Edea, 30, a mother of two, from Ogoja in Cross River State, was nabbed in Lagos after travelling with the girls from Benin, Edo State.

Martha confessed to the police that she was trafficked to Ivory Coast by one Mariam who told her there were chances of securing a good job in the country but was later introduced to sex work where she slaved for months in paying back her custodian who brought her to Abidjan.

Martha said: “I worked for three months to pay Mariam about 300,000 Cefa ( N180,000) to balance her for my transportation into Ivory Coast and also for connecting me.”

She added that Mariam after collecting the money travelled to Spain abandoning her as a sex worker. The mother of two, who left her children in the village with her mother couldn’t find a headway in the business after her connector had travelled to Spain. She said she yielded to her friend’s advice to return to Nigeria to recruit young girls for the illicit business.

Martha, however, came back to Nigeria and headed for Edo State, where she was told that she will find young girls willing to travel out of the country to hustle as strumpets.

The 30-year-old met some locals in the area. She came in contact with two young ladies named Favour and Deborah who introduced her to the young girls.

“Favour took me to one Francess Bamidele who she said is her friend and will like to be taken out of the country for prostitution. Francess also agreed to follow the unknown woman after making some juicy promises and testimonies about the foreign country”.

Francess, a 19-year-old secondary school dropout, while talking to the police, said she was elated to hear from Martha that prostitution is very lucrative in Abidjan so she opted in for it and decided to travel with her without telling her guardian. Deborah also took Martha to one Elo Etim, an 18-year-old.

Martha in her statement said: ‘I paid both Favour and Deborah N10,000 each for helping me get a girl each for the journey.

“I also met with Elo’s mother, I told her what her daughter was about to embark on in Abidjan and she agreed to it, she also prayed for her and wished her good luck,” she explained.

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