Libya brothel owned by a Nigerian in Libya

TWO Nigerian ladies who were recently rescued from the hands of a suspected human trafficker based in Libya have given gory details of how they were lured and forced into prostitution in the North African country.
The victims, identified as Yusuf Nasfat Omobolanle and Ebuno­luwa Lawal were rescued through the intervention of a human rights group, Alliance of Rights Defenders (ARD).
Saturday Sun learnt that the atten­tion of ARD was drawn to activities of the cartel through petitions writ­ten by families of some of the miss­ing girls and those who escaped and ran back to Nigeria.
In the petition, the concerned re­lations alleged that one Alhaji Muri­tala and his wife, Lateefat (surname withheld) both indigenes of Odeda in Ogun State, had trafficked more than 100 teenagers and young wom­en from Ogun to Libya for prostitu­tion.
Also indicted was Lateefat’s mother, Mrs Ebunoluwa (surname withheld) who was accused of lur­ing the girls with mouth-watering promises of good life abroad on be­half of her daughter and son-in-law.
ARD alerted the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and Mrs Ebuno­luwa was arrested while her daugh­ter who was in Nigeria at that time escaped.

At the ARD office where Satur­day Sun correspondent spoke to the rescued ladies, Omobolanle, an aux­iliary nurse based in Ogun State said that she was assured by a male rela­tive that he would link her up with a travel agency which would ensure that she got a job and later travel to the US.
Determined to change her for­tune, Omobolanle jumped at the offer and spent the next one month trying to raise N500,000 which she was told would cover her travel ex­penses.
“I am an axillary nurse. One of my relatives introduced me to Mrs. Lateefat that she had helped so many people to travel to America. My salary as an auxiliary nurse was not enough to take care of my basic needs, so I was determined to be­come independent. She assured me that her brother who is an America citizen would assist me to get a job. I was asked to pay N500,000 which would cover my travel expenses and cost of accommodation. I paid the money to Alhaji in the presence of his wife and mother in-law after a meeting we had at the National The­atre, Lagos.
“Few days later, he called to in­form me that we would not travel by air again. I had already paid and I knew that I might not get the money back if I requested for a refund. On the agreed day, being December 28, 2015, we boarded a bus from Lagos to Kano. On getting to Kano, more persons joined us and we boarded a truck heading to Niger Republic. The truck was so parked full that some persons fell off and died. De­spite our screams, they never both­ered to stop and check on those who fell.
“From Niger, they handed us over to some men whom they ex­plained would ensure that we got to our final destination. On getting to Niger, the soldiers who stopped us ordered that all the ladies and girls should come down from the truck. They flogged us and took turns to rape all the women especially those that could not give them money. They only flogged me but did not rape me because I gave them money. I was fasting and praying all through the journey for God to spare our lives.”

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