Operatives of the Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team, IRTA, has busted a Kano-based human trafficking syndicate which specialized in selling Nigerians into slavery in Libya.
According to a report by The Vanguard, a 28-year-old mother of two, Nofisat Mustapha, who was rescued by the operatives, was on her way to Libya from Lagos after the syndicate promised her a lucrative job in the warring North African country.
Reports also have it that the women were not required to pay any money for their transportation, as they would be transported to Kano state by the syndicate’s agents for free and when they arrived Kano, members of the syndicate would fix them in a bus that would take them to Niger Republic, from where they would be taken to Libya by road.
Sources disclosed that the Kano based syndicate has an affiliation with a human trafficking cell in Niger Republic, which after receiving these women, would sell them off to prostitution rings in Libya, where they would be held captive and be made to work as prostitutes for two years in order to off set the bills spent in transporting them to Libya and their owners would make substantial profits from them.
In his confession, Abubakar Suleiman said;
“I started human trafficking last year, I was introduced to the business by a Nigerien, known as Almusuru, who had relocated back to his country. Almusuru and I were working together at Matara Motor Park Daura Road, Kano. After Almusuru left for Niger Republic, he would call me that people were coming to meet him in Niger and when they got to Kano, I should put them in a vehicle that would bring them to Niger republic.
I have sent over 100 people to Almusru and I earned N10,000 for each of them. I don’t know where the people came from, Almusuru was the person communicating with all the agents across Nigeria and my job was just to take them to Niger Republic and Almusuru would pay me my money. I don’t even know if they would get to Libya safely or die in the desert. I knew it was a crime but I was doing it because I needed the money”, he stated
