25th June, 2017
Jethro Ibileke-Benin
The Benin Zonal Command of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), has arrested a 40-year-old mother of nine children, Mrs. Halimatu Omoruyi Osifo, for offences bordering on human trafficking.
According to a statement signed by the Commander of NAPTIP, Benin Zonal Command, Me Nduka Nwanwenne, the suspect who hails from Igbanke but presently residing in Ugboko village, in Orhionwon LGA of Edo State, was arrested by operatives of the Agency with the support of officers of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC).
“The suspect recruited two victims, Miss X (18 years old) and Miss Y (20 years old) and promised them lucrative work outside the country. However, the suspect sent the two girls to her daughter called Blessing, aka Stella, who is based in Togo, for prostitution.
“As soon as they arrived Togo, Blessing procured skimpy dresses and introduced them into prostitution and collected their earnings.
“Exhausted by the ordeals of prostitution, one of the girls, threw in the towel and said, ‘I will not prostitute again, if they want to kill me, I am ready to die.’ The girls had to hide some of their earnings to escape before being rescued by NAPTIP,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of NAPTIP, Mrs. Julie Okah-Donli, has said that the Agency is poised to smoke out human traffickers wherever they maybe in Nigeria.
Okah-Donli who warned traffickers not only to relocated out of Nigeria or give up their illicit business, added that the Agency was already gathering intelligence in endemic communities in Nigeria with a view to getting traffickers out of business.