Libya finally arrests bad gang torturing Nigerians, Africans
Miss Loveth Ekumabo, 25-year-old Libya
returnee, who blamed her father’s incestuous behaviour for her decision to flee
to Libya, at least, for safety from her father; narrated how she was subjected
to inhuman condition.
She described her journey to Libya as “jumping
from frying pan into fire’’. She has, in her life, gone through bitterness,
especially her stay in faraway Libya, where she underwent forced labour and
made a subject of serial rape. In an interview with newsmen, she cursed all
those who raped her in Libya.
Also, Mr. Harrison Okotie, 35, married and has
two children is one of the returnees with gory story to tell. Okotie, who hails
from Ughelli South local government area of Delta, left everything in Benin,
where he had lived all his life, before leaving for Libya in search of greener
pasture to take care of his family.
He noted that his journey through the desserts
without food and water and the inhuman treatment meted on him, made him realise
that there is no place like home. ”I will never in my life think of leaving my
country again. Whether there is work or not, I will stay here and manage with
my family. ”The Nigerians held-up in Garian prisons are well over 4,000.
The Libya authorities do not want to release
them because they are making money from them. ”They will call you from prison
and ask you to call your people in Nigeria to send money for them to release
you. Even if you succeed in getting money from Nigeria, they still would not
let you go. ”It is a big business. They are not happy that the United Nations
and international bodies are helping to deport people to their countries. So
they now keep Nigerians in their underground prisons. He said: ”It was a
horrible experience. One day, a truck that carried 28 people, 15 of them died
on the way due to lack of food and water.’’
The story of 34-year old Miss Josephine
Ajabor, also from Delta, is however strange. Mr. Sunday Ehiagina, another
returnee, squandered his life savings on the trip to Libya. Ehiagina, a native
of Irrua in Esan Central local government area of Edo, said he owned and
operated a shoe factory for seven years in Benin. In Libya’s Garian and Saba prisons,
many people are tortured.
Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition
of Trafficking in Persons(NAPTIP), had disclosed that more than 25,000
Nigerians had been held in slave and sex camps in Libya. The Director General
of NAPTIP, Mrs. Julie Okah-Donli, made this known while defending the agency’s
2018 budget before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal
Matters on Tuesday.
She said of the figure, about 5000 of the
victims were repatriated within the period in 2017. ”A large number of
Nigerians have also been returned from other countries in Europe and Africa.
”All these people need to be properly received, profiled and assisted. ”
NAPTIP has been working in conjunction with
other governmental and non governmental agencies such as NEMA, International
Organisation for Migration (IOM) and others to provide help to these
unfortunate Nigerians,” she said.
She lamented that in spite of the evils of
human trafficking not so much attention was focused on the menace. She said the
recent trend which marked the resurgence of slave trade was more alarming and
required the attention it deserved.
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