CRIME NEWS

Child labour, trafficking: We ate sand to survive – victims

By Daud Olatunji
Sympathisers were truly moved to tears and pity as victims of child abuse-cum-labour recalled their ordeals in the hands of their various ‘bosses from hell’. More shocking revelations were made when Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action, PRAWA and Stephanie Peace Building and Development Foundation, SPADEV recently took human trafficking sensitisation to the border towns of Ogun State.

*Some of the former victims of child trafficking, abuse

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and Other Related Matters, NAPTIP, has revealed that Ogun State is one of the five states with prevalent issues of human trafficking in Nigeria.
Vanguard Metro, VM, gathered that about half of those who witnessed the programme in Ilara and Iwoye Ketu in Imeko Afon Local Government area of Ogun State had either been victims or have a relative who had been abused as a child or even adult at one time or the other.
The victims, majority of who are women, vowed never to allow their children be taken away by known or unknown persons. Narrating her ordeal, one of the victims of child trafficking, Mariam Bakare, said she developed kwashiokor and was bedridden for two years after leaving her aunt’s place.
Bakare who is from Iwoye-Ketu, one of the border towns in the state informed thus: “I was taken away by my aunt but she turned me into an housemaid. She would not give me food, hence, I started eating sand. “She also barred me from going to the neighbours out of the fear I would tell them my ordeal. I would crawl up somewhere and I would discreetly throw the sand into my mouth since there was nothing else to eat.
“When my acquaintances saw my condition, they alerted my parents that I would soon die if nothing was done. My mother had to lie to her that I needed spiritual deliverance in order to take me away from there.” Ruth Osunbiyi, who is in her late 40s, also said that she resorted to eating sand when she was hunger-stricken at her former boss’ place.
“I spent 15 years as a maid. My mother died after giving birth to me and I was taken to my father’s elder sister place to live. She later sent me to live with her married daughter. That was where my suffering began.
“My day usually began with grinding beans with a traditional grinder to prepare moi-moi which I would then hawk around the village. She would only give me food at around 3pm. Whenever I was hungry, I would eat sand from walls and I would drink water to support it. I ate it because I was hungry and I did not know who to call on because we were in a village then,” she narrated.
Elizabeth Ogundele, a resident of Ilara in Imeko Afon Local Government Area of the state also had a similar story to tell. “There was a woman who had been coming to my mother before I finished my primary six; she liked me a lot then, and she told my mother she wanted to take me to her place so that I could go to school. I was hesitant but the pressure was too much on my mother and she allowed her to take me away.
“But on getting to her place, I was not allowed to go to school. Each time I asked her about it, she would tell me to exercise patience. I then demanded to be returned home since she could not fulfill the promise she made to my mother concerning my education.
“In November, I offended her child (who I also called aunty even though I am a year older her). She wanted to cook for her boyfriend, but the fish she was cooking was burnt and she threatened to beat me up with a cane.
“Out of fear I ran out of the house. I eventually met an Hausa man that night who directed me to a park where I boarded a vehicle going to Abeokuta. It was there that I met people who knew my father and they took me home in Ilara. When I got home, people thought I was insane; I was more or less dressed in rags because I left there without any of my belongings. I had to steal two clothes spread outside by a neighbour,” she informed.
Bukola’s (not real name) story is also touching. “My father’s elder sister told my parents she would send me to school before we left our town for her place. But when I got there, I became a maid; I would bathe her children every morning before they go to school.
“I hawked in the afternoon without food. But I learnt how to peel cassava without her knowledge; that was how I was able to raise money to feed myself. If we have stale foods in the house, I would be the one to eat them. I often slept in the passageway.
“ When my mother visited and left I was accused of stealing money. I was beaten for the crime I didn’t commit; it was later that I got to know it was her first child stealing the money to gamble with. “At a time, her husband wanted to have sexual intercourse with me, but I resisted him. Later he had his way. He slept with me twice. This made me to leave the house. But my father asked me to return there because I didn’t tell why I left.
“The woman took me back to her house and beat me mercilessly. I was forced to run back to my father and narrated everything to him,” she said. Speaking after the programme, Ifunaya Igbokwe, Associate Programmes Officer, PRAWA, Lagos, said the organisation was assisting the victims get over their trauma.
“NAPTIP has found out that there are five major states where it is prevalent: Ogun, Kano, Kaduna, Anambra and Edo states. We are in Ogun to create awareness on the effects of human trafficking. “For Ogun State, we have child trafficking and child labour unlike Edo State where we have prostitution. So, for Ogun State, we have to go into those communities where children are being taken away without the consent of their parents.
“Their self esteem is eroded; some have issues with their education or are educationally disadvantaged and they find it hard to get back into the mainstream. “The next phase of the programme is empowering these people. We would empower indigenes of the states we are currently working on; we would gainfully engage those who are into entrepreneurial services and as well as skill acquisition,” Igbokwe said.
Executive Director, Stephanie Peace Building Development Foundation, SPADEV, Dr. Toyin Olaifa, noted that human trafficking has negative effects on the country’s social economy. “Child trafficking is very rampant in the border areas and most times, they bring them into the interland. The worst impact of child trafficking is psychological and they don’t get out of the trauma till the end of their lives.
“We have plans for places including Ilara, Iwoye-Ketu, Oja-Odan, Ijoun and Igan-okoto which are the towns in the border areas,” she said.