Four schoolgirls have narrated how they were
recruited into prostitution by a suspected human trafficker, known to be Abigail
Nweke Alo, in a brothel located in Calabar business area,
said they were taken from their homes after being hypnotized.
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| Suspected human trafficker |
The
schoolgirls are: Felicia Nzuworgar, 17 years, Patience Williams, 18 years,
Angela Benjamin, 17 years and Charity Nkwogor, 19 years. All from Okun and
Vandeikya Local Government Areas of Benue State.
According to one of them, Charity Nkwogor, “Chairlady
took us from our homes, in January, under the pretense that she was taking us
to Lagos where she had a drinking spot to work as sales girls but we ended
up as sex workers in Calabar”, she said
“I was selling oranges in our market in Okun when
she tapped me on the shoulder and I turned thinking she wanted to buy oranges
but she told me she had a business in Lagos and wanted me to follow her. I
did not know what came over me. I just followed her without even telling my
parents and friends where I was going”, Felicia said
Patience, a senior secondary school Student
(SS2) in Vandiekya, on her part, narrated that she was plating a friend’s hair
in front of her grandmother’s house where she lived when Mike, a commercial
motorcycle rider, who lived in her neighborhood, came to inform her
that a lady was looking for someone to work in a beer parlor in Lagos, and
wanted to know if she would like to go with her. “I told Mike that I was
still in school and could not go with the lady and that she should look
for someone else. But instead of looking for somebody else, Mike went and
brought the lady and when she looked into my eyes, I simply went inside and
packed my clothes and followed her without waiting for my grandmother who went
out to come back”, she stated.
Recounting her own experience, Angela said she was
on her way from school when the lady met her and told her she wanted to take
her to school in Lagos and also assist her in her beer parlor
business and she went with her into the bus where other girls were waiting.
They (girls), on their way from Benue to Lagos,
stopped in Enugu where they spent the night in the house of a man
who, according to her, had seven wives. The man was said to have given them
concoction to drink after which they were warned never to try running away,
their private parts would rot and they would die.
“The man took
us into his medicine hut and gave us the concoction to drink and, when we
refused to drink, he beat us. He told us that if we went out without drinking,
we will die. After we drank, he said that if we ran away from
‘Chairlady’, our private parts would rot and we will die”, Felicia said.
According to her, after the encounter with the man, the next day, they
continued their journey. “We got to Calabar in the night and when I asked
‘Chairlady’ if this was Lagos, she said yes”. The next day, at the alleged
brothel where they were lodged, the girls said Abigail gave them boxer shorts
to wear and begin to ‘hustle’ for men like other girls in the place were
doing. When they refused, ‘Chairlady’ descended on them and beat them mercilessly.
“We arrived Calabar in the night and, the next morning, she collected our
phones and brought boxer shorts to us that we should wear and, when we asked
her where the drinking parlor was so that we could start work, she said we
should hustle like other girls were doing by sleeping with men and, when we
refused, she beat us up mercilessly”, Patience said.
According to her, nobody came to their rescue as all
the prostitutes in the brothel were afraid of Abigail because she was
their head. “Everybody in the hotel was afraid of her because she was their
boss and, if anyone dared to challenge her, she will send the person out of the
place”, she said.
They had to agree to begin sleeping with men after
some days as Chairlady beat them ceaselessly and denied them food.
“You can see marks on our bodies because of the
beating we got”, Angela said.
They recounted how each of them slept with
an average of twenty men every day while Abigail collected the
money they made, leaving them with N500.00 as feeding money. The
girls explained that when they started the commercial sex work, it
was very painful as they were not used to sleeping with such a large
number of men daily.
They said Abigail, on arrival in Calabar,
having collected their phones, did not allow any of them to step outside
the alleged brothel for fear that they might run away and that, two of
them, Angela and Charity, who attempted to escape, were severely beaten by the
woman and her male friends. “ When I tried to run away, she brought a soldier
and a policeman who were her friends who beat me up and
poured tear gas in my eyes and, because of that, I became very sick and
could not stand up for many days”, Angela said.
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| The four girls |
ON WHY THEY FOLLOWED THE WOMAN WITHOUT LETTING THEIR
PARENTS KNOW EVEN AS THEY WERE STILL IN SECONDARY SCHOOL.
The
girls said once the woman touched them on the shoulder, they became hypnotized
and went with her. Abigail, who claimed to be from Ebonyi State, said her
arrest by operatives from Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of Cross River State Police
Command was due to jealously. She said she was not the one who brought the
girls to Calabar. Mr John Eluu, Cross River State Police Command Public
Relations Officer, said the suspected human trafficker will face the law and
warned young girls to be cautious of promises of jobs in Lagos or any other
town by human traffickers without proof. ‘Chairlady’ has since been charged to
court for alleged kidnapping and forcing girls into prostitution.