Kanyi Okeke
Justice Saliu Saidu of the Federal High Court, Lagos, yesterday, heard how 19-year-old girl Igbozuruike Onyinyechi was lured into prostitution in Burkina Faso and forced to sleep with 10 men daily.
Igbozurike, who stated this while being led in evidence by counsel to the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Mrs Anthonia Mgbemeje, said she was lured into the prostitution ring, because she was fixated on working abroad.
According to her, two middle-aged men, Christian Awanebi of Pagilaidi-Onagadouguo, Burkina Faso, and Ariwayo Olowede of Block 337 Flat 2, Ilasan Estate, Lekki, Lagos, took her to Burkina Faso sometime in 2011. She was working as a sales representative somewhere in Victoria Island, Lagos, before she embarked on the journey to Burkina Faso.
She said both men had promised her a better job as a sales-girl in a bigger supermarket in Burkina Faso.
Igbozurike further told the court that rather than get the job, she was asked to sleep with different men in order to make up to N200, 000, to repay the expenses for her trip to the country.
According to her, she was made to sleep with more than 10 men daily, billing each of them the equivalent of N5,000 in the Burkinabe franc.
Both men, she said, forced her to take a blood oath, mandating her not to disclose her ordeal to anyone.
Counsel to the accused, Mac Johnson, urged the court to grant him an adjournment to enable him prepare for cross-examination of the witness.
Based on the motion, Justice Saidu adjourned the case till April 10,2014, for continuation of trial.
Mgbemeje had told the court that the accused persons committed the alleged offence sometime in November 2012 at Ilasan Estate, Lekki, Lagos, and that the offence contravened section 15 (a) of NAPTIP Act 2003.
