Taiwo Jimoh
 |
| DG NAPTIP, Julie Okah-Donli |
In February
2019, Ondo State-born Tosin Adetula decided to be more aggressive in her search
for a teaching job.
The
26-year-old lady had completed her Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE)
programme and was discouraged owing to lack of a job.
She was in
this brooding mood when a friend, Mr Peter Ojo, 37, came to her rescue or so
she thought.
Adetula told
Ojo of her challenges and he promised to assist her. A few days later, he told
her that he would assist her to travel to the United States to work. He
promised to secure a job and accommodation for her over there. However, the
dream job turned out to be a nightmare as Adetula found herself in Oman, one of
the Middle East countries.
She
disclosed that in Oman, she was forced into unimaginable hardship and at a
point, feared she would die. According to her, she knew she wouldn’t be able to
escape the human trafficking cartel that brought her to Oman, thus she decided
to solicit for help from the Nigerian government via a video.
In the
video, Adetula revealed how Ojo tricked her to Oman. While narrating her
ordeal, she alleged that her boss, where she was deployed to work, was
demanding sex from her, even after allegedly refusing to pay her four months’
salary.
When she
rebuffed the man’s sexual advances, he dragged her to the office, where ladies,
newly trafficked to Oman, are kept for onward movement to their prospective
posts.
Adetula said
she was locked up for a week in a toilet without food and water as punishment
for disobeying her boss. She had to drink toilet water to survive.
She
recalled: “After my NCE, I saw the situation of things at home and decided to
travel out. My agent and I agreed that I would travel to the United States, but
I found myself in Oman. We were two ladies that boarded together. When we got
to the airport in Oman, two people came to pick us up; we were taken to an
office, where our passports and phones were seized. We were then taken to our
respective posts.”
Adetula said
since there was no salary for four months, she called Ojo and narrated her
ordeal, but he told her he had played his role in moving her out of Nigeria.
And since then the agent stopped picking her calls.
She said: “I
had to do the entire house chore. I wake up by 4a.m. and work till midnight. My
boss threatened to kill me if I continued to rebuff his sexual advances. He
returned me to the office, where they shouted at me and then locked me up for a
week without food and water. I was forced to drink toilet water in order to
stay alive. When I was brought out, I was returned to my work. But it’s been a
year and four months without salary. I’m now sick and wish to return to
Nigeria. I don’t want to die in Oman.”
Ojo, who has
been arrested by officials of the National Agency for Prohibition of
Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), for trafficking Adetula, denied the
allegation.
He said the
lady was being economical with the truth. He insisted that he only assisted the
victim out of poverty.
Ojo was
arrested by officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC)
and NAPTIP in a combined operation. He was arrested at Ketu area of the Lagos
metropolis after several hours of surveillance.
Fielding
questions from NAPTIP Operatives, Ojo said that he decided to help Adetula to
travel to Oman because he didn’t like her condition. He explained that the lady
used to come to their office to see his boss and over time, he started seeing
her as a sister.
One fateful
day, Adetula came to see his boss. It was at that precise time, that a friend,
based in Oman, called and told him that they urgently needed a housemaid.
Ojo said:
"Adetula used to come to our office every time because she was dating our
boss. It was because of the affair between them that my boss made her his
Personal Assistant. I informed her about the housemaid job in Oman. She said
she would pray over it. The third day, she told me that she was interested,
that she wanted to take her mother and siblings out of poverty. I told her that
whoever had interest in traveling to Oman, would have to undergo a pregnancy
test. The following day, she came with a pregnancy test result. She also took
the necessary pictures. We sent all the required items to the agent in Oman.
When she agreed on the flight date, her visa was issued and her ticket brought
to office.
"In
fact, her mother came to our office at Ketu, full of thanks. The woman asked if
her daughter was going to Oman for prostitution, it was Tosin who responded
that she was going to work as a housemaid.”
According to
Ojo, when Adetula got to Oman, she signed a two-year contract with the sourcing
company, which means she wouldn’t work for another person.
He noted
that Adetula worked briefly in her first post and then ran away, alleging that
the children in the house were disturbing her. Two weeks after her
disappearance, police found and returned her to her boss. The boss, however,
said that he was no longer interested in her services.
Ojo said:
"When Adetula told me why she ran away, I told her she didn’t need to
because she went to Oman to make money. After a while, she blocked my phone
line. I could no longer reach her. I eventually got her through a friend. It
was then she told me she had an ulcer and begged me to tell her boss to take
her to hospital. I advised her to always put the sourcing company and her boss
on record, to prove them wrong whenever they want to deny her some basic
things. I did everything for her for free! The agreement was that when she gets
to Oman and starts working, my expenses used in funding her travel would be deducted
from her salary. In fact, before we started the travelling process, she was
aware that the destination country was Oman.”
Ojo claimed
that as a travel agent, he was not in the procurement of housemaid visas.
His words:
"What I usually do for clients are Dubai visas. When I asked her why she
blocked my phone line, she said she wanted to leave her boss’ house. She went
to the sourcing office, where she was promised that she would be returned to Nigeria
after the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Ojo,
however, said that Adetula’s friend told him the reason she wanted to return to
Nigeria was because her boss’ wife found out she was sleeping with her husband.
The woman had caught her husband and Adetula in a compromising position through
the Close Circuit Camera (CCTV) in their house.
Ojo alleged
that in order to hasten her return to Nigeria, and to also avoid the wrath of
her boss’ wife, Adetula, “made the viral video to blackmail me and the sourcing
company in Oman and also to gain public sympathy. Tosin was afraid her boss’
wife would harm her because of the relationship between her and the husband.”
Ojo said
that the madam found out about the affair after she was forced to start staying
at home because of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The agent
added: “Tosin believed her madam would kill her after what she saw on the CCTV.
I even went to her mother to explain what transpired between Tosin and her
boss. Tosin’s mother prayed that God shouldn’t allow her daughter to get me
into trouble. When Tosin returns to Nigeria, the truth will be revealed.”
The Lagos
Zonal Commander, NAPTIP, Mr. Daniel Atokolo, said his officers went after the
suspect following the viral video, which revealed that Ojo lured the victim,
who is a teacher to Oman.
He added:
"The Director-General (DG) of our agency, Dame Julie Okah-Donli, ordered
us to go after the suspect. We embarked on the arrest following a sustained
surveillance and human intelligence gathering. We confirmed the alleged
trafficker to be living in the house where he was arrested at about 4a.m. The
suspect resisted arrest, but he later succumbed after seeing armed
officers.
"Presently,
the victim is out of the reach of the traffickers in Oman, and NAPTIP is
working with support of international partners to ensure her safe return to
Nigeria. I want to use this opportunity to warn travel agents to desist from
trafficking Nigerians for exploitative purposes.
"We’re
also closing in on other dubious travel agents whose activities have continued
to bring pain and agony to the nation.”
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