BENIN CITY – Emmanuel Eromosele, was seen playing around inside the popular motel Benin plaza in Benin City, Edo State recieving point for the Libya Returnees.
The 6 year old was so consumed with the rare freeedom he had barely experienced in the last one year.
Emmanuel, his sister Blessing and mother could barely hold their emotions, as their experience en-route to Europe, through the deadly sahahra desert, showed desperation and a quest for survival.
Narrating their ordeal to this writer, Mrs Grace Eromosele a mother of seven, told tales of their journey which included being poisioned, sold into slavery and finally imprisoned in Libya.
Grace Eromosele originally left Nigeria with her three youngest children, Emmanuel, Blessing and their youngest sibling who was only 2 years old, with the intent to make it big in Europe, but pathetically came back with two of her children, losing the youngest to the ferocious journey.
She told the writer that she and her children left Nigeria with a woman named Bisi, who they met in Kano city, Nigeria, that Bisi was the one with the contacts in Libya to aid them board a make-shift baloon boat to cross the mediterranean sea into Europe.
Grace said the journey was going fine, until an unfortunate encounter with some unknown persons they met in Agadez,Niger Republic.
“They held us hostage for more than three (3) days and and beat us badly. On the first night we were there, they poisioned the food they gave us.
“We were kept in a very dark room, with Bisi and my children. we were all very scared. I slowly started noticing signs of fever on my children, immediately i fed them the Okro (vegetable) soup i prepared from Nigeria”
At this point, Grace eyes couldn’t hold it any longer, as the very moments she lost her youngest child, came back to hurt her all over again.
“My youngest child couldnt make it, he died that night”, she said soberly.
However the adventurous journey could not be hindred by the death of the little child, as Grace, her surviving two children and Bisi were only able to continue their journey after their captors in Agadez left them for dead, when the fever grew worse, although rescue eventually came their way after a good samaritan took them to a nearby hospital for medical treatments.
After long travels, Grace explained that they eventually found themselves in Libya, but things took from bad to worse when the contact their travel companion (Bisi) had in the North African nation to help them book a spot in the risky baloon boat sold them as slaves to a Gambian who resided in Libya.
Grace recounted countless times she had to call her aged mother in Delta State, Nigeria to send money at gun point, as her captors threathened to kill her and her childrten, if their demands weren’t met.
According to her, “my mother sent money to my diffrent captors as they threathened to kill me. my mother paid more than 500k to them, still yet we were not released. most of the other girls were used as prostitutes to make money for them, but they couldn’t use me as a prostitute becauase they said i was too old”
The story of Grace Eromosele and her brave children grew more pathetic, as they eventually joined thousands of Nigerians in jail for commiting no crime, other than being in the country illegally.
In prison the mother and her children passed through horrible treatments, as they were barely fed and several beaten by prison officials.
“They didn’t give us good food. In the morning they will give us OMZA (a Libyan bread), while afternoon and night we were fed telephone macaroni (a particular type of noodles) soaked with water”, lamented Blessing Eromosele.
The mother and her two kids spent eight months in prison, but were released after joint intervention from the Nigerian Government and the United Nations striking a deal to send all illegal immigrants in the trouled North African nation back home.
Now back home, safe and happy, Grace Eromosele described their rescue as a divine intervention, revealing that at a point all hopes were lost and they had already given up on ever regaining their freedom.
She further added that she looked forward in getting engage into positive and productive ventures to give her children a sound and quality education, stressing that the Goverment should engage them (Returnees) on skill aquisition programmes, in a view to aid them impact to the country.
It was gathered that the picture of greener pastures is what is usually painted before the victims using those who are belived to be sucessful in terms cash repatriation and structures built by them.
This ugly situation have also made economic life expensive in Benin City, as there are many jobless young persons whose ultimate aim is to travel abroad and therefore do not bother being equipped for work, but wait for their opportunity to also travel.
Before these travels especially for the females, oaths of secrecy and loyalty to meet financial obligations and sacrifices are made in notable rivers like Ikpoba river along Ikpoba slope, Upper Mission, Okhoror, Ogba River and other streams.
Despite the inhuman stories and deaths, as has been told by hundreds of returnees who are being deported from Libya to Edo State, most of whom are women and children, young persons are still desperate to travel abroad.
