Promised a restaurant
in London, but dumped in Malaysia
By CHIDI NNADI, who was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Saturday,
July 15, 2006
 |
•Mrs.
Adekunle
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
| |
W hen Mrs Bola Adekunle left the shores of Nigeria in May
last year, she was full of new hopes. She sold all she had
and even borrowed to facilitate her relocation to London.
But this false dream was not hers originally.
One Victor (Surname withheld) who is allegedly involved in
human trafficking from Nigeria had convinced her that he would
take her to London where she would sell Nigerian food in a
petrol filling station.
Victor had told her to get an international passport and a
fee of N500, 000 and an additional sum, which he would spend
to procure her travel documents.
According to Mrs Adekunle, she sold all the goods in her shop
in Abule Egba area of Lagos State and got her husband to supplement
what she had.
After some time, Victor was able to get her the travel documents,
but instead of London, which Victor originally told her, he
brought a Malaysian visa.
She told Saturday Sun recently at Warisan Plaza, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, where she is now selling Nigerian food for her boss,
that Victor with the Malaysian visa had assured her that she
was on transit to London through Malaysia.
Victor had told her that his agent was already waiting in
Malaysia and upon her arrival would assist her to continue
her journey to London.
With the Malaysian visa at hand, Mrs Adekunle believed Victor.
Thus she started running around on how to get money for her
air ticket and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA).
When she got all these, her spirit soared and she thought
she was leaving for London in no distant time to strike good
fortune by selling food.
But Mrs Adekunle’s travails soon started on her landing
in Malaysia. She was, indeed, received by Victor’s agent
in Malaysia, who also helped in checking her into a hotel.
But that was the last time she saw the man who had promised
to see her in the hotel the next day.
Waiting in vain
From days to weeks and weeks to months, she waited in vain
for Victor’s agent to come and facilitate her continued
journey to London.
“At this point, it occurred to me that I have made a
mistake. I came to the hotel with $1,300, which I was using
to pay the hotel bill and to eat.
So, when the money finished I was stranded and decided to
leave the place to go to one of the villages,” she said.
In the village, she took to menial jobs in a frantic bid to
survive. “I decided to be selling akara and later fried
garri to make ends meet,” she said.
It was in that village that somebody introduced her to a Liberian
restaurant in town, where she started to help to prepare African
food. “But things were so hard in the place, I was finding
it very difficult to survive.”
It was at the Liberian restaurant she met her current boss
who asked her if she could make Nigerian delicacies. When
she said yes, the man then took her to the Warisan Plaza,
got a shop for her and they started a restaurant.
Turn around
And because of the quality of her food, the restaurant became
an instant success. Nigerians and other Africans in town have
made the place a regular joint. But Mrs Adekunle says with
all the money she makes in the place only peanuts come to
her as wages. She says the man who opened the shop is the
one enjoying the proceeds of the restaurant.
Slave labour
“The market here is moving on well, but I am not the
owner of the place. I have my boss who rented the shop and
I am just preparing and selling the food for him,” she
disclosed. According to her, she makes between 250-350 Ringgit
per day (about N20, 000).
Besides, she told Saturday Sun that Victor has widened the
scope of his illicit trade by colluding with one prominent
pastor in Lagos to be shipping young Nigerian boys and girls
to Malaysia after collecting N500, 000 from each. The youths,
she said, are now suffering in Malaysia, as they do not even
have regular papers to stay in the country, not to talk of
obtaining work permits. Consequently, most of them, she said,
have resorted to unorthodox means to eke out a living.
With the wool taken off her eyes, Mrs Adekunle hopes to gather
enough money to return to Nigeria. But this is an onerous
task as air ticket alone from Malaysia to Nigeria is about
N200, 000. |
