A female Libya returnee (Name withheld) has narrated how she paid the sum of ₦4.5 million to a human trafficker through prostitution.
The lady was among the 128 returnees received through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on Wednesday.
Narrating her ordeal, she said: “A popular big sister at Akungba approached my mother and convinced her that she would help me travel to Europe with the promise that I will be doing my hairdressing work or I can be doing housemaid to be able to raise money and support my mother and siblings.
“My mother has not been feeling well and she needed support. My elder siblings were not supportive because of their economic status.
“My journey through the desert was horrific. I was to be buried as a grave had been dug and just as I was about to be thrown into it, I miraculously showed signs of life.
“I came back to life. I left Nigeria on Jan. 3, 2016, and the cold was at an extreme peak at the time. I died and resurrected; that was what I could remember.
“What I experienced in the desert was a child play compared to the inhuman treatment meted out to me by my Burga (trafficker) who happened to be from my town and same street,” she pointed out.
She said that despite her illness due to the harsh weather in the desert, her trafficker forced her to be deflowered on the day she entered Libya by fixing her up with a client.
“To God, I used my body (prostitution) to pay my trafficker a total sum of ₦4.5 million.
“The worst part of my experience was the mental challenge I found myself in due to various trauma I passed through in the hands of my trafficker.
“My trafficker took nine of us out of Akungba. At present, I am the only one returning due to my health. I thank God that I am recuperating fast but I have to return to Nigeria so that the health challenge would not relapse.
“Any time I shout out of anxiety or anger, the mental illness will resurface.
“l cannot ask my enemies to embark on any journey out of Nigeria to seek for any non-existing job at all.
“Our people are our enemies; they deceived us to leave Nigeria”, she stated.
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