2 rescued as police arrest human trafficker

Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested a suspected human trafficker for allegedly attempting to transport two teenage girls from Lagos to Abidjan in Ivory Coast allegedly for commercial sex work. The suspect, Martha Edea, 30, a mother of two from Ogoja in Cross River State, was nabbed […]

Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested a suspected human trafficker for allegedly attempting to transport two teenage girls from Lagos to Abidjan in Ivory Coast allegedly 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 young girls from Benin, Edo State.

Edea told  the police that she was trafficked to Ivory Coast by one Mariam, who she said told her there were chances of securing a good job in the country. 

But she said she was later introduced to sex work where she claimed she slaved for many 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 settle 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 said she left her children in the village with her mother, lamented she couldn’t find a headway in the business after her pimp had travelled to Spain.

She further explained that she yielded to her friend’s advice to come back to Nigeria to recruit young girls for the business.

Martha came back to Nigeria and headed for Edo State where she was told she would find young girls willing to travel out of the country to hustle as prostitutes.

In Edo State, she came in contact with two young ladies named Favour and Deborah, who she said introduced her to the young girls.

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

Frances, a 19-year-old secondary school dropout, told the police she was elated to hear from Martha that prostitution was lucrative in Abidjan, so she opted for it and decided to travel with her without telling her guardian.

Martha also contacted Deborah who lives in the neighborhood to help get another girl who was interested in travelling out of Nigeria in search of better work. Deborah took her to one Elo Etim, an 18-year-old, who was assured it was safe to embark on such a journey.

Martha in her statement said, “I paid both Favour and Deborah a sum of N10,000 each for helping me get a girl each for the journey. I also met with Elo’s mother and told her what her daughter was about to embark on in Abidjan and she agreed to it. She prayed for her and wished her good luck,” she explained.

Elo confirmed that her mother was elated about the journey and gave her some money, and a phone number to call when she got to Ivory Coast.

The suspected  trafficker embarked on the journey with the girls from Benin, the Edo State  capital, to Lagos from where they were supposed to connect the Nigerian land border to cross to the Republic of Benin, but things began to take a twist when Frances, out of curiosity, began to question Martha about her welfare and how she would come back from Abidjan for Christmas.

Frances said, “I asked Aunty Martha how much we will have to pay her for the trip and she disclosed I and Elo will work for her till we are able to pay a sum of 300,000 cefa (N180,000) to gain our freedom in Abidjan. Then I told her I wanted to go back home from where we were. This led to an argument which attracted other passengers in the bus.

“The argument made the other passengers in the bus become suspicious and called the attention of the police when we got to Berger bus stop in Lagos. We were all arrested and taken to the RRS headquarters in Alausa, Ikeja.”

Commenting on the development, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Olarinde Famous-Cole, stated that the suspect and her two young girls had been transferred to the SCID, Panti, Lagos, for further investigation.