An 18-year-old girl, Faith Joseph, has narrated how she resisted pressure to engage in prostitution in Mali after being deceived by traffickers who promised her a salesgirl job in Lagos.
Joseph, who was working as a maid in Afuze, Owan East Local Government Area of Edo State, said she accepted the offer of a supermarket job in Lagos but later discovered it was a ploy to traffic her out of the country.
Her parents, upon realising she had been taken to Mali, raised the alarm, leading to her eventual rescue and return to Nigeria with the help of the Edo State Migration Agency.
Speaking in Benin, Joseph said she immediately rejected all attempts to lure her into sex work upon arrival in Mali.
“I was told I would work as a salesgirl in Lagos. But after arriving in Lagos at night and sleeping in a hotel, the next day we were taken to Cotonou in Benin Republic. I complained that we had passed Lagos, but the trafficker said we had not reached our destination.
“In Cotonou, I was handed over to a driver who took me to Mali. When I got there, I realised it was all a lie.
They wanted me to do prostitution, but I told them I could not. I asked to return home, but they said I could only go back if another person replaced me.
“I stayed in Mali for three weeks, surviving on money given to me by kind people because I refused to do prostitution, until I eventually ran to the police station,” she recounted.
The Director-General of the Edo State Migration Agency, Lucky Agazumah, urged residents to promptly report cases of human trafficking.
He also reiterated Governor Monday Okpebholo’s commitment to prosecuting traffickers.
FCNN recalls that after years of mass irregular migration through Libya, the Edo State Government under former Governor Godwin Obaseki criminalised such journeys, as many victims were forced into prostitution abroad.
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In 2018, the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, directed native doctors in the state to revoke curses and oaths administered on victims, placing instead a royal curse on traffickers and their collaborators.
