The National Agency
for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons Tuesday paraded five women
allegedly operating a trafficking racket that ships girls to Dubai for
prostitution.
Blessing Gabriel,
25; Precious Owoh, 29; Rose Gabriel, 25; Priscilla Bassey, 33; and Terry
Smooth, 38 were shown to journalists at NAPTIP’s office in Lagos.
The agency said
their accomplices in Dubai, namely Gina, Fegor Ebony, and Esther Otubu are yet
to be tracked down.
“We have not
brought them to engage them in media trial,” Josiah Emerole, NAPTIP’s Head of
Press and Public Relations, told journalists.
“What we have done
is to say gentlemen, this is what we have seen. That what we are talking about
human trafficking, taking people abroad is a reality.
“So that those who
have never seen us show faces of traffickers can at least for the first time
see them. What women are also doing to themselves and it’s unfortunate.”
The Dubai
connection
According to
NAPTIP, weeks of painstaking investigation and intelligence gathering culminated in the
arrests.
Investigations
began in August after nude videos of two Dubai-based Nigerian ladies, named Ann
and Chisom, surfaced on video-sharing website, You Tube, showing them being
forced to swear, separately, to an oath of allegiance. In the video they were
made to admit that they came to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, of their own
volition to engage in prostitution and are ready to obey their madams without
reporting to anybody.
Blessing Gabriel,
who was arrested when she returned to Nigeria for her traditional wedding,
allegedly filmed one of the videos.
In the You Tube
clip, the women who filmed the videos threatened to upload the nude visuals if
the girls failed to pay up their debts.
“The blackmail
videos are part of the Dubai syndicate’s control mechanism which also includes
oath-taking, and consfication of travel documents to ensure obedience and
submission,” said Mr. Emerole.
The entire episode
started last April when Ms. Owoh recruited Ann for Blessing Gabriel who was
responsible for her travel expenses.
The process of
preparing Ann for Dubai was coordinated by Rose Gabriel who attempted to force
her to a shrine for an oath of secrecy, according to NAPTIP. However, unable
to conduct the oath-taking in Nigeria, the syndicate administered it to Ann on
arrival in Dubai.
”This recording was
later released on You Tube after she (Ann) escaped from her exploiters in Dubai
after she was forced into prostitution contrary to the initial promise of being
given a job at a hair dressing salon,” Mr. Emerole said.
For Chisom, also
known as Gold, the journey to Dubai began in May when she linked up with Ms.
Bassey at Ms. Smooth’s house in Lekki Phase 1.
Ms. Smooth had
rented a five-bedroom duplex with a two room Boys’ Quarters where girls,
numbering more than 20, pay N10,500 every week for accommodation.
”It was in this house
that Chisom met (Ms. Bassey) who claims to be a businesswoman and hails from
Calabar South LGA, Cross River State. It was from (Ms. Smooth’s) house that Ms.
Bassey recruited Chisom for Ebony Fegor who had been her ally since 2011,” said
Mr. Emerole.
“Ms. Bassey has
confessed that she knew that Chisom was going to Dubai for prostitution. She
claimed that since Chisom left Nigeria in July 2015, she did not hear from her
or Fegor until she saw Chisom’s nude video on the internet.
“She also claimed
that when she called Fegor to enquire of the reason for such an action, Fegor
denied any knowledge but admitted that she had recorded it to instill fear in
Chisom so that she would pay back the money she expended on her.”
Suspects’ reaction
The suspects,
looking tired and disheveled before the clicks of journalists’ cameras, were
adamant they had done nothing wrong.
Ms. Smooth,
admitted she knew both Ms. Bassey and Chisom because they lived in her house,
but denied she knew they were into prostitution.
She also said she
is still in possession of Chisom’s mobile phone and clothes because she owed
her money before traveling to Dubai.
According to
NAPTIP, Ms. Smooth’s rented home in Lekki gulps N3.2 million every year.
But when she was
ask to confirm that claim, she declined.
“Sir please I don’t
have any other thing to say and I have nothing to do with this Dubai business
so I don’t have any other thing… The people that are doing this business you
should go and look for them,” she responded tersely to a question on how much
she pays as rent.
“Don’t use me to
get your promotion. It’s my personal house. I live there, you understand, I
didn’t build it, I rent it to stay there.”
“How much are you
paying for the rent?” The NAPTIP official pushed.
“I can’t tell you,” she retorted.
Ms. Bassey was more
gentle with her questioners, calmly explaining her role in the alleged
syndicate.
“Gold (Chisom) met
me in Terry’s house. During our stay in Terry’s house, she heard story that I
stay in Dubai so she was the one…most of the time she will ask me ‘What are you
still doing in Nigeria? This Nigeria is too hard, things are not working ok.’
That we should travel to Dubai, I should take her to Dubai, she doesn’t mind to
pay any amount of money.”
“I told her I don’t
take girls to Dubai, that I’m even looking for money myself to go to Dubai
during August-September. After that day, several times she’ll disturb me ‘Please connect me I’m tired of this
Nigeria I want to travel. I want to leave nigeria.’
“I told her it’s
better for her to go to Dubai on her own. To go to Dubai is N450,000 if you can
go on your own. But if someone sponsors you, they will charge you money. Some
people pay $10,000, some $15,000, $18,000, $20,000.
“She said that she
doesn’t care, that any amount that I should just connect her to travel out,
that she desperately wants to travel out. I gave her the number to call my
friend in Dubai.”
Ms. Bassey said
that Ms. Fegor, whom she connected Chisom with, sells African foodstuff in
Dubai and that she was unaware the lady was going to do prostitution.
“Gold was doing
prostitution here. I don’t
know what she’s going there to
do. She said she’d
do anything just for her to get out of Nigeria.”
When asked what she
does for a living, Ms. Bassey simply said: “We go out. We have friends.”
She, however, said
that the owner of the house does not know what the girls do for a living.
But when Ms. Smooth
was asked if she knows what her tenants do for a living and why she charges
them N10,500 weekly, she became more agitated.
“How will I know? I
don’t follow them. I don’t collect money for prostitution, that’s what I told
you oga. I’m not changing my mouth. For my life I have never introduced anybody
for anything.
“The money I
collect, it’s a big house, seven bedroom duplex. It’s not only me. First of
all, I’m supposed to turn that place to a boutique but my money was not
enough.
“So later people
started coming to the house, friend of friend and friend of friend, and at the
end of the day they don’t bring any money for toiletries or cleaner or gate men
or DSTV. So I started saying that ok from now on… some people will buy
something, put for inside freezer, before you wake up, people that didn’t bring
any money has already finished eating everything.
“So I said everybody
should bring 10,500 in a week so that we use it to buy foodstuff. I have two
security, their salary is 25,000 every month. I have DSTV I pay almost 17,000,
PVR decoder. I also have two cleaners that is working there. So you calculate
the money for me. Plus gas, at least twice in a week I bought four tanks of
gas. So tell me if that money should come from my pocket. Am I working?
“I’m not running
hotel because guys are not allowed to come into my house. No man come inside my
house.”
Journalist: “So how
much is your rent?”
Ms. Smooth: “My
rent is personal to me.”
Journalist: “Madam,
are you married?”
Ms. Smooth: “I’m
not married.”
Journalist: “So you
are just paying the money from your pocket, without support from your husband.”
Ms. Smooth: “The
money I use to rent that house has nothing to do with any money I collect. All
my life I have always doing business.”
Journalist: “Where
is your shop?
Ms. Smooth: “I used
to have a shop in Port Harcourt, I just moved to Lagos, like two years ago.
I don’t have a shop
in Lagos, I go from house to house, so that they can come and pay things as
wholesale. The girls came to buy things.”
Joseph Famakin said
NAPTIP had been collaborating with the Nigerian Intelligence Agency in their
ongoing investigation about the ladies’ activities.
“All they are
telling you now is a way of trying to exonerate themselves from facts already
known. So we are trying our best, we know that there are other members that are
still there and we’ll make every effort to see that they tracked,” said Mr.
Famakin, Zonal Commander, NAPTIP, Lagos
“The end user over
there (in Dubai), we are making every effort to get her. And we know that she
will fall into a trap because we have an IICU unit, International Intelligence
Cooperation Unit (a unit in NAPTIP).
“We’ve been using
that unit to the fullest to get information. So if you sneak into Nigeria,
we’ll be aware. Just like she (Blessing Gabriel) sneaked in for wedding.
Before the day of her wedding we were able to get her.”
NAPTIP said the
suspects would be charged to court soon, while efforts are being intensified at
the diplomatic level to track other members of the group still in Dubai.
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