Six teenage girls clad in Hijab to disguise as Muslims while being trafficked to Cote d’Ivoire and Libya by a syndicate have been intercepted and rescued by the police in Edo State.
Also rescued was a boy who was with the six teenage girls on the botched trip when they were intercepted by the police at a checkpoint at Isihor, along the Benin-Lagos highway.
The ages of the victims ranged between 16 and 20, according to Philip Ogbadu, Edo State Commissioner of Police.
He said the seven victims were intercepted and rescued on Thursday, following an intelligence report, and hails from Delta, Edo and Enugu States but all resident in Edo State.
Ogbadu also said they were allegedly recruited by a sister to one of the victims for the journey.
“They are minors, six girls and one boy. On interrogation we found out they were being trafficked to Cote d’Ivoire by a relation to one of them.
“It is a case of trafficking. They will be handed over to National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person (NAPTIP) for rehabilitation,” he explained.
One of the victims confirmed that the trip was arranged by her sister for someone in Libya.
“I am not the one conveying them. I am going to Libya while they are going to Cote d’Ivoire. We were arrested at the check point in Isihor.
“I am not the one trafficking the girls. They asked me to pay N200, 000, but the person that is trafficking the girls is in Libya and he paid money to sponsor the girls,” he said.
One of the girls (name withheld) said they were recruited by Godfrey’s sister at a birthday party organized of one of their friends.
“She asked if I would like to travel out and that work is available there; cleaner, house help and prostitution. I told him I will do house help work, so she then asked me to join them.
“We went to the person that took us for the journey and stayed there for three days.
“We were arrested on Thursday at police check-point when searching our vehicle, they found Indian hemp on one of the boys in the vehicle and took us to the police station,” she said.
