From Tony Osauzo, Benin
The Benin, Edo State, zonal command of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has arrested a 40-year-old woman and mother of nine children, Mrs. H.O. Osifo, for offences bordering on human trafficking.
Osifo, from Igbanke, but presently residing in Ugboko village in Orhionwon Local Government Area of Edo State, was arrested by operatives of NAPTIP, with the support of officers of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
The suspect was said to have recruited two victims (aged between 18 and 20 years) and promised them lucrative work outside the country. However, the suspect sent the girls to her daughter, called Blessing, aka Stella, based in Togo, for prostitution.
As soon as they arrived Togo, Blessing reportedly procured skimpy dresses and forced them into prostitution and collected their earnings.
Exhausted by the ordeals of prostitution, one of the girls was said to have thrown in the towel, saying: “I will not prostitute again; if they want to kill me, I am ready to die.”
Reacting to the arrest of the suspect, the Director-General of NAPTIP, Julie Okah-Donli, said the agency was poised to smoke out human traffickers wherever they may be in Nigeria.
She warned traffickers not only to relocate out of the country but also to give up their illicit business.
Okah-Donli added that the agency was already gathering intelligence in endemic communities in Nigeria, with a view to getting traffickers out of business.