It has been revealed that Nigerians based in Libya are also selling their fellow countrymen, amidst the slave trade revelations in the country. On Thu
It has been revealed that Nigerians based in Libya are also selling their fellow countrymen, amidst the slave trade revelations in the country. On Thursday night, another 150 migrants from mostly Edo and Delta states arrived Nigeria. Many of the returnees confirmed that they were sold by their fellow countrymen, who were getting rich in Libya.
26-year-old Odion Saliu, a hairdresser from Edo State, said she was kidnapped and handed over to a Nigerian, who forced her to call her mother. According to her, her mother in Benin paid N200, 000 but she was again sold by the same Nigerian for 3,000 dinars (about N794, 000). Saliu explained that the Nigerians spoke pidgin English and some Nigerian languages.
Another Edo State indigene, Sunday Anyaegbunam, left Nigeria along with his wife in April. He said during their nine-day journey through the desert, they were sold twice by Nigerians. According to him, when their Nigerian ‘burger’ (trafficker) sold them to another set of Libyan traffickers at Agadez, Niger, the traffickers sold him and his wife to a Nigerian who took them to Sabha, Libya, where they were separated in different cells.
“We were made to contact our families on the phone and I had to ensure the payment of N400, 000 for my release and N300, 000 for my wife. The Nigerians selling people in Libya are more wicked than many of the Arabs. I have never seen people so heartless as the Nigerians who bought and sold me. There are many of them in Agadez and Sabha, who are making so much money from selling their own people. When you approach them and say, ‘Please, my brother, help me.’
They would tell you, “No brother in the jungle.”
A 25-year-old woman, Esosa Osas, who was in Libya for six months, said she also met many Nigerians selling their countrymen.
