“I slept with over 400 men in five months”- Trafficking victim
A victim of human trafficking recounts how her elder sister pushed her into prostitution
According to PUNCH Metro, two sisters 22-year-old Love and her sister 23-year-old Happiness, were lured into prostitution by their eldest sister identified as Mary. The sisters were reportedly trafficked alongside their 25-year-old cousin Joy Lawrence, from their hometown in Ogoja, Cross River state, after a promise of a ‘decent job’ by Mary sometime in January 2016.
22-year-old Love recounted how she slept with over 400 men in less than five months in Sango Ota, Ogun state. Love said they were trapped by the time they discovered they situation they were in.
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The sisters were discovered after Lawrence fled the hotel they had been staying in with another victim. They were taken to the Lagos zonal headquarters of the Nigerian immigration service. After debriefing the immigration officials, they went back to the hotel to rescue other victims.
According to Love, they charged between N500 and N700 per sex, paid N200 daily as hotel rates. She also said she never had a formal education owing to the fact that their father died while they were still babies.
Here’s what she had to say:
“I was learning tailoring in the village. My sister told me she could help me get a job in Lagos; she didn’t tell me that it was prostitution I was coming to do. After we got to Lagos, she said we should do this (prostitution) job so we can make money to be able to finish my craft as a tailor. I sleep with about four men in a day and each of them pay me at least N500.”
Recounting her own experience, 23-year-old Happiness had this to say:
“I didn’t go to school and I have not learnt any trade. I came to Lagos a few months ago. My sister didn’t tell me this was what I was coming to do in Lagos. She said it was a good job.”
25-year-old Lawrence who said she had been told she was going to go into trading, had this to say:
“I ran away because I didn’t like the work. I don’t want to do it again. I never knew this was the job.”
The trafficker, 32-year-old Mary, said she had been pressured into bringing the girls into the trade when they kept insisting she takes them to Lagos. Here’s what she said below:
“I came to Lagos with a friend in 2014 and my friend introduced me to this job. We were first using a hotel called Happiness Hotel before we moved to Morning Star Hotel in Sango Ota. When I travelled to the village, my sisters started disturbing me that they wanted to follow me to Lagos to go and work. When they continued to disturb me, I decided to take them with me; but I didn’t tell them I was into prostitution. I told my mother I was working in a beer parlour. Each of us makes N2,500 to N3,000 daily, we sleep with an average of three to four men and they pay between N500 and N700.”
Mary also said she had saved N340, 000 for the three girls, between January and May 16 when they were arrested. She however claimed that she had settled some policemen with N150,000 when they were first raided by policemen from Sango Ota.
The owner of the hotel Mrs Akpojaro Rose, who was arrested alongside Mary, said she wouldn’t allow her children go into prostitution. Here’s what she said below:
“I warned Mary that the girls were too young, but she didn’t listen to me. I have 15 rooms in my hotel and I have seven girls, who were paying me N200 every day. If I had children of their age, I will not allow them do this.”
Musa Maza, the assistant comptroller-general of Immigration, said the suspects would be prosecuted at the end of investigations.
The victims have been handed over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other related matters.
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The post “I slept with over 400 men in five months”- Trafficking victim appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read on NAIJ.COM (Nigerian newspapers).