Human trafficking: Two bus loads of 121 suspects intercepted
By Felix Uka, Correspondent, Abakaliki

Two bus loads of 121 persons suspected to be trafficked emigrants were on Thursday, intercepted at Ezzamgbo community in Ohaukwu Local Government area of Ebonyi State on their way to Cameroun and other central African countries.



Newly posted Ebonyi State Police Commissioner, Julie N. Ioha, while parading the suspects, said it was a major breakthrough in the fight against human trafficking, explaining that she was parading the suspects numbering 121 including 12 women in connection with the offence on human trafficking.

She narrated how a team of detectives from the state command on Thursday intercepted two luxury buses belonging to Ifesinachi Transport Company, conveying the persons who took off from Lagos.

Ioha explained that luck ran out of them when their leader, Esther Eze, from Uburu in Ohaozara Local Government area of the state could not explain reasons why such a number of people from various nations were cramped in the luxury buses, adding that strong indication emerged in the course of interrogation that the occupants were being trafficked.

She said the matter was still being investigated, and that the authorities would stop at nothing in unraveling those behind the act. The emigrants were: 92 from Mali; 14 from Senegal; one each from Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and Cameroun; 2 from Mauritania; 7 from Guinea; and 3 from Niger Republic.

The suspected human trafficker, Eze, told newsmen that she was just serving as a guide for the persons, explaining that they were en-route to Cameroun and other places where they said they hoped to find jobs. She stated it was not the first time she was shepherding such persons to various destinations, dismissing insinuations that she may have been a member of a racket. One of the suspects, who gave his name as Alabi Abudu Kabiru, from Cotonou, said he paid 70,000 CFA to Eze to facilitate his emigration to Cameroun.

Also, another suspect, a lady, who gave her name as Beya, said she paid 80,000 CFA to the suspected trafficker, pointing out that she had been staying in Cotonou as an immigrant but decided to go back to Cameroun, her country of origin. Efforts to get the management of the transport company at their Abakaliki office to talk on the matter proved abortive.

wao. going to cCameroon to get a job? hahahahahahahahahaha