There seems to be no end in sight to the menace of human trafficking presently plaguing the nation as there is evidently an uptick in the dark trade.
Reports reaching our news desk have it that there is a connection between human trafficking and the house that was razed down last week at the Ekewan Road axis of Benin City.
According to a close source that pleaded anonymity, the arsonists that razed down the house were sent by a notorious human trafficking and sex ring that specialises in sending young, unsuspecting girls to Europe for prostitution under the guise of helping them to find a decent, legal paying job in Europe.
According to the source, one such young girls, Adodo Faith, has been trafficked to Europe sometimes around early 2016 and promised a decent job only to be forced into prostitution on getting to Europe. The girl was said to have refused going into prostitution and also refused to pay a huge amount to the trafficking cartel because she couldn’t find a decent job.
Our investigation further revealed that pressure has been on the girl by both the cartel and her parents in Nigeria to go into prostitution as a means to enable her pay the trafficking cartel but that the young lady has vehemently refused.
The refusal to pay the money resulted in the arson. Our sources also has it that two children of the said Adodo Faith were in the building when it was set ablaze and they were rescued by sympathetic neighbours. Our investigation further revealed that the said Adodo Faith has been threatened with death if she ever returned to Nigeria without paying the cartel.
Our laws and institutions need to be strengthened to deter and punish traffickers who continue to pounce on the economic hardship in Nigeria to lure girls and woman to sex slavery. Even our law enforcement agencies are complicit in this practice as they continue to frustrate all efforts to prosecute the few traffickers that are apprehended because of bribery and corruption.
