Akhimen Franca and Onofua Ehinon after they were rescued
Akhimen Franca, 25 and Onofua Ehinon, 23 have narrated the touching
ordeal how they were deceived into prostitution by someone they trusted
in far away Ghana.
According to the girls, they were approached by a suspected
unidentified female trafficker at Ekpoma in Edo state in Nigeria to seek
greener pastures as workers in a restaurant in Ivory Coast but ended up
in Togo to work as prostitutes.
The girls, unaware of the woman's intentions, had been promised a
good life without knowing they were going to be traded for prostitution.
The girls were to pay the woman simply called 'Madam Excellent' the sum of 800,000 cefas from prostitution.
But, luck was on their side as the two girls were lucky enough to summon courage and escape.
According to Encomium magazine, the girls shared their touching ordeal in the hands of the woman.
Narrating the incident, Franca said: "It was in Epkoma in Edo
state where I met one lady… I was actually going to church when I met
her and she approached me and said she was looking for girls that can
work in her restaurant in Ivory Coast.
"So, when I got home I told Ehinon and we arranged to meet her
and she told us what the plan was and when we will be leaving Nigeria
for Ivory Coast. So, on February 2, we left Edo for Lagos, had a stop at
Mile 2, and she told us that was where the car that will take us to
Ivory Coast will pick us. So, at exactly 9.30pm, the car came for us and
we all boarded that evening. When we got to Togo, I noticed that we
were not going to proceed with our journey, so I asked the woman why are
we here, you said we were going to Ivory Coast not Togo, and she told
me to keep quiet, that whatever she asked me to do I should just do it
without complaining.
"Later, she went out to buy clothes and came back with some
skimpy and short dresses and gave them to us to wear. I asked why such
dresses, because they don’t look like clothes that are worn by a
waitress or a person selling food. Again she told me to keep quiet and
just do whatever she asked me to do, adding that we were brought to Togo
for prostitution and in return we get to pay her 800,000 cefas each.
"So, I told my sister, we can’t do this kind of job, we have to
find a way to escape from her than to stay here. So, we left without
even carrying our bags in order not to arouse any suspicion of us
running away. And as we were trying to escape, we met a guy, after
listening to our story, he told us he doesn’t know anybody in Togo,
because he is from Ghana and can help us get there so that we can get
the help we needed.
"When we got to Ghana, he took us to Christ Embassy Church
where we met with two guys and one of them gave us some money which is
worth like N700,000 each and we left with the guy that brought us from
Togo to lodge in a hotel, because it was getting late and there was
nowhere to sleep. He, however, promised us that in the morning he will
take us to some pastors so they can help us with transport fare back to
Nigeria.
"But to our surprise in the morning while I was taking my bath,
the guy took off with the money we were given at the Christ Embassy
Church. So, we approached the manager of the hotel and told him our
predicament, and he called a taxi, paid the driver and asked him to take
us to the Nigerian Embassy and also gave us some money.
"But unfortunately, when we got to the embassy we were told
that there was no money to give to us to return to Nigeria, but God so
good one of the workers there, asked us to come with him to his house
since it was on a Friday and we had no where to stay, but told us that
if the embassy does not help us by Monday, he won’t take us back to his
house and we have to find help somewhere else…"
Also speaking on the issue, the President of the All Nigerian
Community-Ghana, Moses Owaro called on parents and guardians to be more
vigilant about strangers who offers, to take their children abroad for
better opportunity, while security personnel should be extra vigilant at
points of entry, be it at the boarder or at the airports as young girls
like these are smuggled out every now and then.
Which is one of the reasons why the All Nigerian Community-Ghana in
partnership with Ghana Immigration and other security agencies will be
mounting a post at points of entry into Ghana most especially to enable
us have the necessary information about Nigerians that are coming into
Ghana and what they are coming to do.
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