A 30-year-old woman, Martha Edea has been arrested by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad of Lagos State Police Command for suspected involvement in human trafficking while she tried transporting two teenage girls through Lagos to Abidjan in Ivory Coast for commercial sex work.
Edea, a mother of two who hails from Ogoja in Cross River State, was nabbed in Lagos after travelling with two teenage girls from Benin in Edo State.
In her interrogations with the police she confessed to have once been also trafficked to Ivory Coast by one Mariam who lied to her that the pastures were green there and that there were chances of her securing a good job but later got introduced to sex work and was sex-slaved for months so as to pay back her custodian who brought her to Abidjan.
“I worked for three months to pay Mariam N180,000 to balance her for my transportation into Ivory Coast and also for connecting me.” She further said that after Mariam collected the money, she travelled to Spain abandoning her as a sex worker.
Having left her children in the care of her mother in the village since she couldn’t find a headway in the business, she resolved to a friend’s advise.
Edea explained that she yielded to her friend’s advise to come back to Nigeria to recruit young girls for the business.
Edea then came back to Nigeria and headed for Edo State where she was told that she will find young girls willing to travel out of the country to hustle as prostitutes.
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One of the victims, Frances Bamidele, a 19-year-old secondary school dropout on her part said she was elated to hear that prostitution was very lucrative in Abidjan so she opted in for it.
Elo Etim, 18, was also recruited.
Edea in her statement said, ‘I met with Elo’s mother and told her what her daughter was about to embark on in Abidjan and she agreed to it, she also prayed for her and wished her good luck.”
Confirming the statement Elo said that her mother was so happy about the journey that she gave her some money and phone number to call when she got to Ivory coast.
