Citizen Journalist Narrates How They Saved A Girl That Was Being Trafficked To Oman, Dubai

….Appeals to Nigerians to help her start-up a business

Social media entrepreneur and citizen journalist, Comrade Phillip Thomas popularly known as Comrade Phil has given a chronological details of how he rescued a girl who was being trafficked to Oman, United Arab Emirates onboard an Kenya flight enroute Nairobi.

Comrade Phil who was on the same flight with the girl, simply identified as Ms Yemi said he alongside another Nigerian lady on the plane convinced the girl to abort her trip.

She was on the flight heading to Oman, a country occupying the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula with a promise by her traffickers of better job and pay unknowing to her that she was being trafficked.

Phil, is however appealing to Nigerians to assist the young girl who has since returned home back to her family to start-up a business.

We reproduced below Comrade Phil’s account of the story:

Today I saw a video of a Yoruba girl posted on Pulse Nigeria ( watch here: https://web.facebook.com/pulsenigeria247/videos/2030798830346868/ ) who was trafficked to Oman, recounting her ordeal in tears and calling for help to return home.

This brings me to the story I am about to tell you guys.

On the 11th of June while traveling to Kigali, Rwanda on a Kenyan Airways flight via Nairobi, I sat next to a female passenger wearing hijab. Her name was Yemi.

As the flight took off, she grabbed me in fear – a sign that was her first time flying. So I decided to engage her in a conversation.

She told me she was heading to Oman via Nairobi – Dubai. I asked if she had gone to visit her family as she looked Muslim, only to find out she was been deceived with a promise of a job with better pay. She is not even a Muslim, she is a Christian but had to disguise as a Muslim for easy entry into Oman.

My mind snapped back to a video I saw on Sahara Reporters of a girl who recounted her near death ordeal in Oman with a similar story as Yemi’s.

I dedicated my 5 hours on that flight to convincing and almost begging Yemi to abort that trip at Nairobi. I got the third passenger on my row, a lady by name Oghale, who was attending a training in Nairobi, involved. We approached the cabin crew who seemed very aware of such situations and helped to convince Yemi against her trip.

Yemi eventually agreed to our advice and aborted the trip at Nairobi. We tried to get the airline to convert her ticket and use it to bring her back to Nigeria but that seemed impossible. We were informed that the ticket was not a single ticket and so Kenyan Airways could not bear her cost back to Nigeria.

Oghale had to leave with the car that was waiting for her, I had another flight to catch to Kigali and Yemi was somewhat stranded at the airport. We left her with some money for food and I made a call to the founder of African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) (AMAA), Aunty Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, who then called Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Mrs Abike Dabiri yet nothing was done. I put on my laptop and visited the website of the Nigerian embassy in Kenya and to my surprise the website had no contact details, not even an email address.

It was almost 1:00 am in the night and my flight was set to depart Nairobi for Kigali. While leaving for Kigali, Yemi was crying. It was as if we had just delivered her from Egypt and then left her to die of starvation in the wilderness. I was virtually in tears while catching my flight. I managed to talk to a few airport staff who promised to help and collected their contacts. While in Kigali, I managed to communicate with Yemi through one of the staff’s phone and reassured her she would be safely returned to Nigeria.

The following morning, I began chatting one of the Kenya Airways staff on the issue. Oghale called too. After several follow up, I was ready to pay for her flight back to Nigeria when I was informed that the airline finally accepted to convert her ticket and take her back to Nigeria.

Yemi is safe in Nigeria now yet she is just one out of many girls that have been deceived and trafficked to Oman and other countries with fake promises of a better life only to be used as sex slaves etc.

The saddest part of this story is that the Nigerian government and the Kenyan Airways are both conspirators in this crime. A kenyan airways staff actually challenged me when I was trying to get help for Yemi. Yemi told me how the immigration officers at the Lagos airport only advised her not to travel, instead of stopping her. Same with the airline that somewhat knows that these girls are been trafficked yet does nothing to stop them.

These girls are trafficked by agents in Lagos who work with traffickers in Oman and charge these girls as much as N200,000 ( about 550 dollars) per trip. They are still required to pay a huge sum to their traffickers over time.

Yemi told me her mum got her a loan of the N200k she paid to the agents. She was billed to pay back from Oman with an interest over time. Her major fear was how she will start all over again when she returns to Nigeria.

To assist Yemi, here is her account details:

Acc no: 0679345014
Acc name: Adebesin Yemi Igbagboyemi
Bank: FCMB

Share and tag all Nigerian Government officials and accounts until something is done.

“Evil persist because good people sit down and do nothing.”

#SayNoToHumanTrafficking

Comrade Phils