Emerging reports indicate that some Nigerians based in Libya are deeply involved in the abduction and auctioning of their fellow countrymen as slave. The revelation is coming after thousand of Nigerians are being repatriated by the International Organization of Migration in collaboration with the European Union. For instance in November, over 1, 295 Nigerians were repatriated from Libya, while over 5, 578 have been brought back so far in 2017.
Punch reports that Thursday night, 150 migrants from mostly Edo and Delta states arrived the country aboard a Buraq Airplane at the cargo terminal of the Murtala International Airport, Lagos. It was two days after 239 migrants had also been brought into the country. The report added that some of the returnees who thanked the authorities for facilitating their return disclosed that they were actually sold by their own fellow countrymen who are getting richer in Libya.
The report quoted one Odion Saliu from Edo state as saying she was kidnapped and handed over to a Nigerian who forced her to call her mother in Benin to pay the sum of N200, 000 for her released. Saliu further explained that after the ransom was paid, she was sold to another Nigerian for 3, 000 dinars (N794, 000).
“When I was kidnapped with others and held for some weeks, the Arabs asked if I wanted to be taken to a Nigerian and I readily said yes. I was very happy that I was going to someone from my country. But it was a lie. The Nigerian they took me to locked me in a cell and told me to call my mother and ask for N60, 000. The man said he would sell me to a connection house if my family did not get the money. I called to inform my mother and the trafficker who facilitated my journey from Nigeria.
But the trafficker spoke with them on the phone and told them the amount they demanded was too small. They increased it to N200, 000. My mother paid into an account after they provided her with the account number over the phone. The Nigerian said if I wanted to cross the sea, I had to pay him again. But when we got to the seaside, he sold me again.”
Other victims have also recounted similar ordeal.
