Kehinde Adewole, Ado Ekiti
Operatives of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) have arrested four persons in connection with alleged human trafficking to Italy for prostitution.
Among those arrested is a 35-year-old woman, Mrs. Mary Omowaye, at the Command’s passport office in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday while trying to procure international passports for the victims to travel to Italy for illegal works.
The victims were: Adegoroye Abiodun, 24, Akinsanmi Titilayo Blessing, 30 and Adeyan Motunrayo, 20, all from Idanre town in Ondo State.
Speaking with newsmen while handing over the procurer and the three victims to National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), on Wednesday, the NIS Comptroller, Ekiti Command, Mrs. Ifeoma Benedict Dibia, said the suspects were nabbed after her men got wind of where they were planning to travel to.
Dibia added that her operatives had stepped up efforts to rid the state of human trafficking, child labour and prostitution, going by startling revelation made by Governor Kayode Fayemi that Ekiti State had become a transit state for the illicit businesses.
The Comptroller said most painful and disturbing was the fact that the trend of human trafficking are common among children from broken homes.
She said Omowaye was operating in connivance with one Mr. Jamiu, who normally processed traveling visas for the victims in Lagos and her sister, Jumoke, who based in Italy.
“One of our responsibilities is to stop human trafficking and child’s labour. And when these young ladies came to our passport section to get international passport, we interrogated them and we suspected that this could be an illegal migration.
“They said they are going there to do hairdressing and as house helps, but this was how they used to trick and traffic the victims to other countries, only to get there and used them for prostitution.
“After interrogating them, we knew that they didn’t know what they were going there to do.
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“Some of the victims are fondly being molested and died in the process.
“What we normally do is to arrest people like these, profiling them and hand them over to NAPTIP for prosecution.
“We are going to work in tandem with NAPTIP to arrest the chief syndicates, Mr Jamiu in Lagos and Jumoke in Italy for prosecution. We are also going to reunite the victims with their families for protection,” she said.
While being quizzed by NIS operatives, the procurer, Omowaye, said it was not true that she allegedly tricked the victims to travel to Italy for prostitution.
“This is not true, my younger sister there has been helping people to travel . Even my 19 year old daughter is there, where she works as a shop keeper. We are just trying to help them”, she maintained.
One of the victims, Jumoke, said she was an hairdresser and her plans was to go there and do the job, saying the issue of prostitution did not arise.
“The woman in Italy is the one sponsoring us. We are going to work for her for six months when we get there and then regain our freedom, that was the agreement reached with us”, she revealed.
