They travelled to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in search of the proverbial greener pasture.
But little did they know that they had fallen victims of a new method of human trafficking in Africa, particularly in Nigeria.
It soon dawned on them that they were sold for N350, 000 each to work as housemaids in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
An Ibadan-based travel agency arranged the journey for the duo with a promise of mouthwatering opportunities in oil and gas company, teaching, nursing and other lucrative jobs in the two countries.
They were taken aback when they got to there and soon discovered that they were to work as housemaids.
But after spending over two weeks in servitude, Abiola and Taiwo were rescued by the Oyo State Police Command.
The two ladies were brought back to Nigeria on Thursday May 7, 2015. They were received by men of the command at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, before they were taken to Ibadan.
On getting to Ibadan, they were taken directly to the Police Hospital inside the state police command in Eleyele, Ibadan for post trauma counselling and necessary medical attention.
Though the ladies have been re-united with their families, they gave vivid accounts of their ordeals in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Narrating her ordeal, the 28-year-old Abiola Daramaola, who was rescued from Kuwait, said she has a Diploma certificate in Industrial and Labour Relations.
According to her, she was told she would be employed to work as a teacher, nurse or with a travel agency before she left Nigeria for Kuwait.
The travel agency, she stated, charged her N150,000 for the journey. But she paid only N80,000 and the agency allowed her to travel. But it was on agreement that she would pay the remaining N70,000 after working for two months.
What she met in Kuwait was not what she expected. She was asked to work as housemaid for certain period to get residence permit.
But the work, she said, was too much for her, saying: “When I got to Kuwait, one travel agent, who introduced himself as Ibrahim, an Ethiopian, received me. He took me to his office, where I dropped my bag.
“He later took me to where I would work. I was to mop a three-story building with the ground floor everyday.
I was also told to wash clothes, spread them on the line and iron them when they were dry. I was also told to wash plates.
I endured and did the work for some days. But the work was too much for me.
“I would work and exhaust my strength and my employer would not give me food. I only managed to eat the left-over food after my principals and their visitors had eaten.
When I was fed up with the work, I told the agent, Ibrahim I could no longer do the job. I said I wanted to return to Nigeria.
Why would I come all the way from Nigeria to Kuwait and be doing all these works? It is better I return to Nigeria. I was even enjoying in Nigeria.”
Abiola further explained that Ibrahim was furious when she told him she wanted to return to Nigeria. The request, she said, made him to demand that she must pay him the N350,000, which he bought her with before she would be allowed to go. Thereafter, Abiola said he locked her up.
“He locked me up in a place in his office. He seized my phone and my International Passport. In the place, I met some other ladies that were already locked up too. They were from Nigeria, Ghana and other countries. I was there crying daily.
“The ladies also told me that they all met what they did not expect in Kuwait. But one of them gave me her phone and I sneaked out to buy recharge card.
“On my way, an elderly man saw me as I was crying and asked me what was wrong. I told him what happened.
He pitied me and said I had two options. He said the first option was for me to continue with the housemaid work or take to prostitution to pay Ibrahim his N350,000. But I rejected the two offers.”
After the conversation with the man, she bought the recharge card and called one of her friends in Osogbo, Osun State. She told her what she was going through in Kuwait. The information got to the police.
Also, the same fate befell the second victim, 29-year-old Taiwo Ajayi, who introduced herself as a single mother and a holder of a Higher National Diploma (HND) certificate in Accounting.
She disclosed that she completed her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Nigeria in March 2015 and opted to travel to Saudi Arabia the following month.
According to her, the managing director of the travel agency did not collect any money from her before she travelled, adding that he’s a pastor in her church in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
But she was told she would work in an oil and gas company in Saudi Arabia.
“In Saudi Arabia, I worked as a housemaid. I worked in the house in the night. At about 10p.m, the woman asked me to iron clothes.
I told her I could not because the work was too much for me. I begged that I would come back the following day to iron the clothes.
“When I got back there the following day, the woman asked me to clean the whole one storey-building.
She did not give me food. At about 2p.m, I told her I wanted to rest, but she said she would not allow me to rest. Then, I said she should take me back to office.
“So, they changed my work from Saudi Arabia to Kuwait ( the two countries share borders). I spent a total of 18 days abroad, working as housemaid, even with my certificate.
“With my experience over there, people that want to travel abroad for work must be sure of what they are going to do there. They should stay in Nigeria if they don’t know the exact thing they would do when they get to the country of their destination.”
The two ladies were grateful to the Oyo State Police Command for rescuing them from slavery.
Besides, the 39-year-old managing director of the travel agency, Victor (surname withheld by us), who arranged the journey for the duo has been arrested and charged to court by the police.
But Victor, who is a former branch service manager of a commercial bank, said he told Biola and Taiwo that they would work as housemaid in Kuwait and they agreed, adding that he only helped them.
While saying that he founded the agency in 2010, he stated that he was relieved of his job in the commercial bank in 2013 due to a fraud in the branch of the bank he managed, adding that he’s still being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The commission, he said, had seized his International Passport.
His agency, he disclosed, had helped no fewer than 480 people to travel abroad for work and education.
Victor further told policemen that he connected with his old friend, Kenny, who is based in Kuwait to get Nigerian travellers through his agency to Kuwait.
The two ladies, he said, were to work for sometime and get residency permits to live and work in Kuwait. But the police insisted that he sold them as housemaids in Kuwait.
The state Commissioner of police, Mr. Mohammed Katsina, said the successful rescue operation was made possible as a result of the beauty in the efficacy of grassroots intelligence of his Ambush Squad and the cooperation of necessary stakeholders.
He alleged that the travel agent, and his cohorts overseas specialise in luring young ladies seeking greener pasture abroad, under the pretext of assisting in providing job opportunities.
“On arrival at their destination, the innocent ladies are subjected to all forms of degrading and inhuman treatment. Not only this, they are tortured, sexually harassed and even raped.
“These ladies are often illegally kept in a solitary confinement on a daily basis in places, where they had no access to communication and where no one could secure their release.
“With the help of our high level, robust intelligence, the newly constituted command’s Anti-Kidnapping Squad was able to burst the seemingly impenetrable network of the syndicate and facilitated the rescue to Nigeria of two victims on May 7, 2015,” Katsina said.
The police boss, however, enjoined members of the public to be wary of “criminals who masquerade as true travel agents”, promising: “The command will leave no stone unturned to arrest other members of the syndicate, now at large.”
