No fewer than 24 girls were trafficked from Akwa Ibom and forced into prostitution in Agege, a Lagos State suburb, had been rescued by the Lagos State Police Command.
WuzupNigeria reports that the police on Wednesday also arrested four suspected human traffickers – Okon Felix, Michael Etim, Victor Asuquo and Goodness Ebiefie – in connection with the case.
It was gathered that the traffickers brought the victims, aged 13 to 27 from the Oron Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State and kept them in shanties in the Abattoir area of Agege in Lagos.
They were said to have forced the victims into prostitution.
WuzupNigeria gathered that the bubble burst after one of the girls declared missing in Akwa Ibom State was seen in the Abattoir area of Lagos State. The person who saw the victim informed her sister who came to Lagos and contacted the police.
“After efforts to locate her proved abortive, someone saw her in Lagos State and the police were contacted to rescue her and on getting to the hideout, 23 more girls were found in the location,” the source stated in a newspaper report.
According to reports, the suspects sublet the shanties, where they kept each of the victims at the rate of N1,000 daily, and were collecting between N1,500 and N2,000 from customers, who visit the shanties to have sex with the girls.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Bala Elkana, confirmed the incident. He said the 24 girls were trafficked to the state since January.
He said during profiling, one of them disclosed that she was 13 years old.
When asked what she came to do in Lagos, the teenager, boldly declared that “ I came to hustle”.
But some of them said they were tricked with employment promise by the agents, only to discover it was a prostitution job.
One of them said,
“I am from Oron, Akwa-Ibom State. I came to Lagos in January 2020. I was told I was coming to work as a maid only to discover it was a prostitution job and I could not leave because I didn’t know anywhere in Lagos.
“At first, we were collecting N1,500 from customers. But when business became bad, especially because of the Corona Virus, we started collecting N1000. We pay N1,000 daily for accommodation. At the end of the day, the agents would collect the money realized from us.”
He stated that investigation into the matter was ongoing, adding that the suspects would be charged.
Elkana said,
“Twenty-four girls were trafficked from Akwa Ibom State to Lagos since January 2020. We have rescued the girls and arrested four suspected traffickers, Felix Okon, 32; Michael Etim, 22; Victor Asuquo, 35; and Goodness Ebiefie, 32. The girls are between the ages of 13 and 27, and we rescued them around the Abattoir area along the railway line.
“The matter was reported to us as a case of a missing person. One of the girls was reported missing in Akwa Ibom State and the family was searching for her and got information that the girl was seen somewhere in Lagos, so when we got to the location, we stormed it in search of the girl and found her.
“Surprisingly, we also found 23 other girls, who are all from Akwa Ibom State, and all of them confessed that their parents were not aware of their whereabouts.
“The girls all live in shanties and pay N1,000 per day for the shanties. The traffickers brought them to Lagos for prostitution and they collect between N1,500 and N2,000 from customers, who sleep with them, and some of them don’t get the money directly, because the customers pay the pimps. We are investigating the case, because the number is likely to be higher. The suspects will be charged.”
