One of the returnees in the fifth batch of 136 from Libya who arrived Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, near Port Harcourt, in the early hours of yesterday, Joy Job has revealed that it was Nigerians that sold her and a few others into slavery in Libya.
Job, while recounting her experience in Libya, described it as “horrible, sorrowful and unforgettable.’’
She said that she was sold into slavery by a Nigerian who told her that he found a hairdressing job for her in Kano, not knowing that she had been sold into slavery to another Nigerian living in Libya.
“Nigerians are selling fellow Nigerians into slavery in Libya; we are sold from one person to another. Libya people will buy us from our people, and use us for any kind of work they like.
“I did not know that where I was in Kano was a boundary between Nigeria and another country until I saw myself surrounded with guns.
“My abductors told me that if I did not agree to go to Libya, they will kill me, so, I had no option than to agree with them.
“They gave us Nigerian account numbers to pay the money they charged us before they freed us from their custody,” she said.
Job advised Nigerian youth still nursing the idea of travelling out of the country illegally to drop it and manage life with whatever they see in the country.
She thanked the Federal Government for rescuing them and fulfilling its promise of bringing Nigerians home.
Job also appealed that the Federal Government should continue with the evacuation in order to save many Nigerians who were still in different prisons and camps in Libya.
Speaking with newsmen, South-South Zonal Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr. Martins Ejike, confirmed that the fifth batch of 136 Nigerian returnees from Libya arrived Port Harcourt International Airport in the early hours of yesterday.
Ejike, represented by NEMA Chief Administrative Officer, Mr. Ebhodaghe Eric, received the returnees who arrived aboard Med-View Airline 5N-MAB at about 1.10 a.m.
“They are all intact, except one of them who we are taking to the hospital with the ambulance to find out why she is unstable,” he said.
Ejike said that few returnees in the fourth batch were still left at the centre, adding that they were from Osun and Ekiti states.
He appealed to concerned state governments to hasten the process of picking their indigenes at the centre in Port Harcourt.
Ejike said the agency would contact state governors for prompt evacuation of the returnees from the fifth batch in the Port Harcourt centre.