The war against human trafficking intensified in Edo State last
week after whistle blowers informed security agents about the arrival of
a Russian based alleged human trafficker,Vivian Ehioze.
Consequently, she was arrested alongside her brother, Pastor
Endurance Ehioze, said to be her recruiter. One of their victims was
alleged to be a 23-year-old-lady, Florence Abu, said to have been
trafficked to Russia for prostitution when she was 17.
They were alleged to have been involved in trafficking several
girls to Russia with Endurance allegedly using his position as a pastor
to facilitate the recruitment of the girls from church.
The state Commissioner of Police, Haliru Gwandu, whose men arrested
the suspected traffickers, described the raid as a boost to the fight
against human trafficking.
While victim Florence, who was deported to Nigeria after she had
suffered some strange ailment, is being treated at a hospital, Vivian
and Emmanuel are cooling their feet in prison after a magistrate court
in Ekiadolor asked them to be remanded.
They were remanded on a two-count-charge by Chief Magistrate E I.
Bazuaye. The suspects, and two others still at large, were said to have
committed the offense sometime in January 2013 at Idunwina Quarters,
Ekiadolor, near Benin-City. They were alleged to have connived to
procure Florence for the purpose of prostitution and other sexual
exploitation.
Meanwhile, Florence narrated her story to Vanguard newspaper, read below;
“It all started in 2012 when a pastor in my church, Endurance
Ehioze, called me to say he wanted to see me. He asked me if I will
like to travel out of the country and I said yes. I told him that I was
constrained financially; so he said money was not the problem and that
he had a sister abroad that will finance my trip.
"He further told me that I could pay off the sister off in less
than two months after my arrival abroad. He added that I shouldn’t be
afraid of making money abroad since and I am a good singer and hair
stylist. The pastor further told me that I might be lucky to even come
across a white man that will support me”, the victim started.
“Later, he (Endurance) gave me her sister’s number in Russia
called Vivian Ehioze. When I flashed her, she called me and introduced
herself. She asked me if I was interested in leaving the country,
saying as long as I was interested I should get my passport ready which I
did by borrowing N30,000 from LAPO, and I called her to tell her that
my passport was ready.
“She asked me to give the passport to Pastor Endurance (the
brother) as he will handle everything. She gave me words of
encouragement that everything will be fine. Few days later, she called
again to say I should pack my luggage and take it to her mother’s place
enroute to Lagos. But when I got to the mother’s place, she told me it
was late to travel to Lagos that same day.
"The next morning, she woke me up and said there must be an
agreement between us because many girls, when they get to Russia, don’t
often pay her daughter back the money spent to take them abroad. So, she
said, she must take something from me as an oath and that once I
finished paying her daughter, I will have to pay her some money as
well.
"I was surprised that Endurance, who is a pastor, encouraged me
to undertake such oath. I had thought that as a Christian we will do it
the Christian way. Finally, the mother took strands of hair from my
head, armpit, private part and she also collected my pant for the oath
taking.
“When I arrived Lagos, the next day, an elder brother of Madam
Vivian (name withheld) came to pick me from the park and took me to a
hotel. He brought out a slip of paper from his pocket and said it was my
visa application and that it was genuine. He told me to relax and that
I should use what I have to get what I wanted. I was shocked when he
took my phone according to an order from Vivian so that nobody might
call to discourage me from proceeding on the trip. I asked him how I
will be able to communicate with my mother since he had collected my
phone and he assured me that Endurance (pastor) will be the link man if I
wanted to speak to my mother.
“Immediately thereafter, he brought out a condom and asked that
I should pull off my dress. I resisted him but he forcefully had his
way. He said it should be a secret between the two of us and threatened
that if I disclosed it to any one, something terrible will happen to me.
He took me to his house and asked me to pretend about it. For the two
weeks period I waited for my visa, it was hell for me in the house. He
molested me regularly but thankfully my visa came in February 2013.
“When I arrived in Russia, Vivian came to pick me up at the
airport and she took me to her place in Moscow. The first thing she did
was to take my passport away from me. She said the passport now belonged
to her. The third day, at about 9pm, she asked me to dress up. She
took me on a road walk during which I met several Nigerian girls
prostituting on the street and that was how I was lured into
prostitution.
"I started paying the money ($45,000) and once I finished
paying, I was deported to Nigeria. Apart from that, I was inflicted with
a strange ailment. Life was so unbearable for me so much so that I was
put under medication for almost one year. The doctors treating me
couldn’t handle my case. The doctors said other people with worse health
situations had been treated and wondered why my own case was
different.
"When I couldn’t bear it, I had to tell my mother about it. It
was my mother that used to send me black soap and cream from Nigeria
through courier to treat the ailment. At a point, it was my mother that
was sending money to me to pay my house rent. Life there became
difficult so much so that I had to go to Nigerian embassy in Russia for
help before I was deported.”
Asked if she was aware she was being trafficked for prostitution, Forence said:
“I was 17 years old then. My madam lied to me that life was far better
over there and that if I didn’t want to stay in Russia, I could travel
to another country. I made all the credits I needed at O’ level but
there was no money to further my education; so when the opportunity
came, I jumped at it.
"Besides, my mum was owing a huge debt and I wanted to help her
because of the embarrassment. But what my madam told me was completely
different from what I met in Russia. I was molested to point that I took
ill. I was using gas water because of acute chest pain arising from the
torture I received from my madam. Sometimes I will just collapse. I was
always on drugs. And the she abandoned me in Russia and came to Nigeria
to look for other girls to traffick. I couldn’t cope with life; so I
was deported with other girls who were going through the same situation
as l. If it is possible, some of our girls in Russia will trek back home
because the suffering there is huge, some of them are beggars there.
“I want to advise young girls hoping to be taken abroad to work
that all that glitters is not gold. Yes, abroad is beautiful, but if
you are going to be trafficked by someone, you should cry out. Life
there is not what they paint to you. Many girls out there are dead and
their parents think they are alive. Out of the 300 girls deported in the
last one year, about 100 of them are HIV positive.
"Our girls should learn trades and empower themselves rather
than going abroad for prostitution. I want to thank Edo State
Commissioner of Police because he has fought for me by apprehending my
traffickers (madam and her brother). I came in contact with an NGO
(Solomon Okoduwa) through one girl called Gift when we were at the
NAPTIP detention centre in Lagos. Okoduwa has been helping me to settle
down and was instrumental to the arrest of my madam and her brother.”
Corroborating the victim’s story, her other, Madam Josephine Abu, who wept profusely, said, “My
daughter was assisted to travel through Endurance our pastor, who is
the second in command to the senior pastor of our church. The suffering
was too much for me to bear.
"He said since I was indebted to some people and I could not
pay, he would help my daughter to travel abroad. He (Endurance) assured
me that since my daughter is a hair stylist, she will make money in
Russia. For a long time, I didn’t hear from my daughter until she
called to say she was seriously ill and could not bear staying in Russia
any longer and had to be deported.”
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