Human trafficking: Two bus loads of 121 suspects intercepted
By Felix Uka, Correspondent, Abakaliki

Two bus loads of 121 persons suspected to be trafficked emigrants were on Thursday, intercepted at Ezzamgbo community in Ohaukwu Local Government area of Ebonyi State on their way to Cameroun and other central African countries.



Newly posted Ebonyi State Police Commissioner, Julie N. Ioha, while parading the suspects, said it was a major breakthrough in the fight against human trafficking, explaining that she was parading the suspects numbering 121 including 12 women in connection with the offence on human trafficking.

She narrated how a team of detectives from the state command on Thursday intercepted two luxury buses belonging to Ifesinachi Transport Company, conveying the persons who took off from Lagos.

Ioha explained that luck ran out of them when their leader, Esther Eze, from Uburu in Ohaozara Local Government area of the state could not explain reasons why such a number of people from various nations were cramped in the luxury buses, adding that strong indication emerged in the course of interrogation that the occupants were being trafficked.

She said the matter was still being investigated, and that the authorities would stop at nothing in unraveling those behind the act. The emigrants were: 92 from Mali; 14 from Senegal; one each from Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and Cameroun; 2 from Mauritania; 7 from Guinea; and 3 from Niger Republic.

The suspected human trafficker, Eze, told newsmen that she was just serving as a guide for the persons, explaining that they were en-route to Cameroun and other places where they said they hoped to find jobs. She stated it was not the first time she was shepherding such persons to various destinations, dismissing insinuations that she may have been a member of a racket. One of the suspects, who gave his name as Alabi Abudu Kabiru, from Cotonou, said he paid 70,000 CFA to Eze to facilitate his emigration to Cameroun.

Also, another suspect, a lady, who gave her name as Beya, said she paid 80,000 CFA to the suspected trafficker, pointing out that she had been staying in Cotonou as an immigrant but decided to go back to Cameroun, her country of origin. Efforts to get the management of the transport company at their Abakaliki office to talk on the matter proved abortive.

KAI this IGBO people self with their WURU WURU, lol

lol.

wayo people.

;d ;d ;d ;d ;d ;d ;d

na wa.

Hey no one should pay the ethnic card on this issue. There's this place in Sagamu where scores of young people ( age 8-21yrs brought in lorries from the south-south especially from Cross River) are dumped. People then come in from different parts of the south west (Lagos in paticular) and inspect them before taking the visibly healthy ones back home. The contractual period of slavery is usually on a yearly basis. The facilitators stop feeding their wards between 3-5 days after they've arrived in Sagamu. Therefore the kids virtually beg the prospective labour masters to buy them for fear of starvation. The females among them give cheap sex to the locals and their facilitators to keep from starving pending the time they are taken (into slavery). Their facilitators get about 60%-70% of their wages.
Now here's a question:
i) why are the locals keeping silent;
ii) who is the guilty party : the facilitators or the eventual labour masters.
All this is Nigerian inhumanity to fellow Nigerians.


N.B :- Don't know if the place still exists. It's been 4yrs now.

Just anything is possible in this country. We give the government hard knocks for treating the citizens unfairly but even we as citizens treat ourselves terribly. I know the government has been trying to eradicate this business if I can call it so. Does it mean that the "business" is so lucrative that people find it difficult to let go? Can someone like Esther Eze mentioned in the story give out her own children as slaves or whatever they are called? I guess the law against children trafficking needs to be harsher and should be fiercely enforced.

This is a very serious issue and we should all see it as that and not reduce it to the level of ethnicity. In fact, where has the ethnicity games played by our fathers lead us in this nation? Our generation should not take up that legacy from them, abeg.

@ Legendary, please try and give a vivid description of that place in Sagamu so that government agencies who come across this thread can storm the place and free those kids who might still be there and arrest the perpetrators of this devilish act. If the locals are unwilling to act, we, who have credible information, should do this for the sake of our dear country.

hummmmmmmm.

Esther Eze is selling her own kids into slavery.

:p :p :p :p

;d ;d ;d ;d ;d

Temper temper naija cutee. You don't conquer hate with anger.
Think you've got a good heart though.
Cheers.

Sister say na "possessed young man' I wan laf die. Sistah leave the man alone now?? you know he is just trying to bait you into an outburst. Every tribe get him own wahala. Some dey plot coup, some dey cut hand in the name of God, some dey rule country for 10 years dey steal money like bastards, some dey hustle everyday dey cheat dey backstab, abeg no get headache becos on person wan stress you on purpose,

And talking of screens, Aunty Naijacutee, u sef dey behind screen . If you see pilar in person, de guy fit big anyhow wey go make u maintain. make I use this behind-screen opportunity take talk my own, abeg make una sshhillll. nothing dey happen

hummmmmmm.