Two young women, Akhimen Franca, 25 and Onofua Ehinon, 23 reportedly ended up in Togo to begin work as prostitutes after a certain suspected female trafficker at Ekpoma in Edo state approached them, pretending to give them job as restaurant waitress in Ivory Coast.
The woman, who the victims identified only as ‘Madam Excellent’, was said to have instructed that they would pay the sum of 800,000 cefas to her monthly.
The duo, both of Edo state, had agreed only to discover on their arrival at Togo instead of Ivory Coast, they were billed to work as prostitutes.
In a chat with Encomium Magazine, they narrated how they summoned courage and escaped.
They disclosed that they learnt their lessons the hard way and gave a graphic account of how they were deceived and almost ended up as prostitutes.
On how she ended up in Togo supposedly as a commercial sex worker, 25-year-old 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.
“On February 2, we left Edo for Lagos, had a stopover at Mile 2 and she told us that was where the car that will pick us to Ivory Coast. 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?
“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. 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 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.
“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 nowhere 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,” Franca narrated.
“When we got to the embassy on Monday, there was still no hope for us until we met Mr. Moses Owaro, President of the All Nigerian Community Ghana, who took us back to the embassy with a letter explaining our situation to them, and still no help was forth coming due to financial constrain, and eventually had to fund our trip back to Nigeria with the help of Chief Christopher Obareki, a member of the board of trustees of ANC-GH with the sum of 800ghc to buy our tickets back to Lagos and also gave us N6,000 for our trip from Lagos to Edo state.”
When asked if their families knew they were embarking on such mission, 23-year-old Ehinon chipped in, “We didn’t tell our parents because we wanted to surprise them by going to Ivory Coast to work and come back home with lots of money to help us start our businesses.
“We just finished learning fashion and design, so we were hoping when we make money, we can come back to Nigeria and buy sewing machines and open our own place and that was a big mistake on our part. But Mr. Moses Owaro eventually spoke with my brother in Nigeria to explain the situation of things before we got back.”
When asked how they were able to cross the border with ‘Madam Excellent’ without the authorities suspecting any foul play, Ehinon said, “Anytime we got to the boarder, we were told to come down from the car and cross over to the other side on foot. And what the woman kept telling the immigration officers and other security personnel was that we were going to the next country to buy goods to sell. She told us not to show any sign of fear or fidget in front of the officers.”
The duo said they felt really bad when they realized they were being tricked into prostitution instead of working in a restaurant, adding that they left that place by all means even when they had no place to go, rather than sleeping with different men while the con-woman takes all the money.
The President of the All Nigerian Community-Ghana, Moses Owaro, when contacted, called on parents and guardians to be more vigilant about strangers who offer 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.
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