By Sunday Ani
Reprieve has come the way of the 27 stranded Nigerian girls in Lebanon, as some well meaning Nigerians have rallied round to secure a bigger apartment for them while arrangement are on to ensure that they are brought back to Nigeria as soon as possible.
The Executive Director and Co-founder of Rescue Africans In Slavery (RAIS), Motilola Adekunle, made this known in a telephone chat with our reporter, saying that well meaning Nigerians had started responding to the girls’ clarion call.
She said: “Well meaning Nigerians are starting to get up. We are currently having a meeting but by the end of the meeting, I will be able to give an update.”
A video of no fewer than 27 stranded Nigerian girls in Lebanon, crying and pleading for urgent assistance from President Muhammadu Buhari and other well meaning Nigerians had been trending in various social media platforms.
In the video, which had trended online, the Nigeria girls where clustered in a room were seen displaying placards with various inscriptions such as “We are stranded;” “We want to go back home to Nigeria;” “President Buhari, help your citizens in Lebanon;” and “Say no to human trafficking in Lebanon,” the spokesperson of the girls identified as Comfort Adebisi lamented about their deplorable condition and called on fellow Nigerians to come to their aid.
Stranded Nigerian girls in Lebanon cry for help pic.twitter.com/dFa2qzg4jx
— The Sun Nigeria (@thesunnigeria) July 31, 2020
Adebisi gave a graphic details of how over 27 of them, who escaped from their wicked employers found themselves in a cramped one room apartment where they sleep, cook, and do every other thing they want to do, saying, “We are calling on government authorities, Christian and Muslim clerics to do something urgent to save us.”
According to her, the ladies are all regretting their decision to travel to Lebanon. “We have regretted coming to this place. We need your help. We want to go back to our father’s land. We want to come home. Please, everybody should plead with those in authority on our behalf to assist us because we want to come home. We don’t want to die here,” she said.
The girls specifically appealed to President Buhari, Femi Otedola, Senator Ademola Adeleke, Hon. Ladi Adebutu, Pastors TB Joshua, Enoch Adeboye and David Oyedepo, as well as Apostle Johnson Suleiman, Prophet Ajayi and Abike Dabiri among other well meaning Nigerians to come to their aid as a matter of urgency.
When contacted through the phone, the spokesperson for the girls, the Osun State-born Adebisi said most of them were taken to Lebanon through agents, after they parted with monies ranging from N150,000 to N600,000. “Most of us were promised office work while others were promised that they would work as house help. However, most of their promises were fake.
“Most of our sisters here are very sick and the Lebanese hospitals cannot treat them without their passports. Our madams seized our passports, which we processed with our own money. They even seized the property we brought from Nigeria like clothes and phones.
“Many of us have worked for seven to nine months without salary. Most of us have developed ulcers due to starvation. Please help us, we want to go home as soon as possible. Our parents are in panic and greatly distressed; they are undergoing so much pains because they don’t know our fate,” she lamented.
