THE police in Edo state Friday said they have rescued six minors that were to be trafficked outside the shores of Nigeria.
Commissioner of Police in the state Philip Ogbadu disclosed this to newsmen at the command headquarters where he said the victims were rescued following an intelligence report.
He said the victims include five girls and a male who were allegedly billed to be trafficked to Cote d’ Ivoire and Libya.
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He gave the names of the victims to be, Innocent Godfrey (male) 20, Success Okogbowa 17, Gift Osabuohien 18, Endurance Edigho, 18, Gift Edigho, 17, Oghayero, 19 and Happiness Oliver, 16.
He said that the girls were disguised as Muslims by wearing hijab and they were intercepted by the police at Isihor police check-point, Benin City, on the Benin Lagos highway adding that the victims are from Delta, Edo, and Enugu states but all resident in Edo state and were allegedly recruited by Innocent Godfrey’s sister for the journey.
Obadu said “They are minors, six girls and one boy, on interrogation we found out they were being trafficked to Cote d’ Ivoire by relation to Godfrey.
“It is a case of trafficking. They would be handed over to National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffick in Person (NAPTIP) for rehabilitation,” he said.
Innocent Godfrey, said the journey was arranged by her sister for someone in Libya.
One of the girls, Endurance Edigho, said they were recruited by Godfrey’s sister at a birthday party of one of their friends.
“She asked if I would like to travel out and that work that is available there; cleaner, house help and prostitution. I told him I will do house help work and 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 checkpoint when on searching our vehicle, they found Indian hemp on one of the boys in the vehicle and took us to the police station,” she said.
(Vanguard)
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