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The men of the Nigeria Immigration
Service on Tuesday evening apprehended the arrow head of a group that
allegedly specializes in human trafficking, Sunday Edet in Ado-Ekiti,
Ekiti State.

Mr. Edet, who operates under the
auspices of a company named Eko Employment Services was said to have
allegedly ferried to Ekiti State tens of people in the last five years.

The suspect while being interrogated
confessed that he was not alone in the business but working with
middlemen residing in Cross-River State.

Mr. Edet who explained that he made at
least N80 000 from each of his victims, named some personalities in
Ekiti State as some of his accomplices.

He said he had not committed any crime
by bringing the 51 teenagers to the state, because some rich people
usually requested for these set of people.

“I was only being magnanimous by
assisting the 51 teenagers to get jobs in order for them to be able to
feed themselves. I venture into the business because quite a lot of
people were putting pressure on me to help them recruit house-helps,”
he said.

NEXT gathered that the arrest of the
kingpin was made possible when men of the Immigration Service stormed
his hide-out in a Guest House in Oke Ureje area of Ado-Ekiti and
successfully rescued two new catch of the traffickers.

It was gathered that the victims,
Blessing Enal Usang (18) and Emmanuel Ibiang(17) were transported into
the state a fortnight ago.

Forced to work

While narrating her ordeal, Ms Usang
said she was picked from Calabar, Cross-River State by Omini Effiom(45)
her sister’s husband with a promise to get her a job.

She said she was picked in the street
by Mr Effiom without previous notice and was transported to Ekiti
State, adding that Messrs Edet and Effiom made sexual overtures to her
which she rebuffed. She said she was given a beating of her life after
she refused the duo’s overtures.

While praising the men of the
Immigration Service, who came to her rescue, Ms Usang said, “I am
impatient to return to my parents”.

Mr Ibiang, who is a sickle cell
patient, while narrating his experience in the hands of the alleged
human traffickers, said he was given to an old woman in Ifaki-Ekiti
before he was refused because of lack of strength to work under hard
condition.

Sources close to the Immigration
Service disclosed that the traffickers and their victims would be moved
to the office of National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in
Persons and other related matters (NAPTIP) in Lagos for rehabilitation
or reunion with their families.

The source disclosed that the culprits
and victims wouldn’t have been transferred to Lagos if there had been a
remand home in the state.