Posted by Sesan Olufowobi on
With trepidation, the nineteen-year-old girl looked at the older woman, her two hands clasped across her chest, holding in place the wrapper that the older woman had ordered her to tie.
With trepidation, the nineteen-year-old girl looked at the older woman, her two hands clasped across her chest, holding in place the wrapper that the older woman had ordered her to tie.
She stood, facing a makeshift shrine that had been arranged at the office of the National Agency for Prohibition of Human Trafficking in Person and other Related Offences (NAPHTIP).
The woman collected a cup containing a whitish liquid substance from one of the officials. After muttering something to herself, she waved the cup round the head of the girl three times.
'Now that you no dey go again, nothing bad go happen to you. You go live long and you go get plenty children. You go strong well well," she prayed to the collective relief of everyone at the scene.
It was indeed a relief for those who were involved in the drama that started late September, when immigration officials from the Federal Republic of Togo handed the poor girl to their Nigerian counterparts.
Her name was Mercy Osaro, a victim of human trafficking, while the woman was Mrs Christiana Oshodin, a self acclaimed priestess of eight traditional gods.
Osaro would not rest until she had been cleansed of an oath that had been administered on her by the priestess, so the NAPHTIP officials had to go to Benin, the capital city of Edo State, to arrest the priestess, who after realising that she could be facing prison terms, performed the cleansing in the presence of the Saturday Punch correspondent.
Osaro told our correspondent that she got involved in the whole drama when her cousin, one Mrs Maurice Akagbin, came to her parents who were living in Ekpoma, Edo State late last year. 'Akagbin had told Osaro's parents that the daughter of her boss, who was based in Italy needed a maid to help her nurse her baby."
It looked too good an opportunity for Osaro to miss. Having just dropped out of secondary school in her final year because her parents could not raise the WAEC fees, Osaro would not allow her parents to rest until they had said yes to Akagbin's proposal. And to make sure that they did not change their mind, she suggested that she should be allowed to start living with Akagbin immediately so that everything would be done without delay. The parents also agreed to that and Osaro followed Akagbin to Benin.
Osaro said she was not an opportunist. Yet she knew that if she was to make anything out of her life, she had to leave her parents.
'My mother had six children for my father. I am the first girl by my mother for my father. We are nineteen in all from two wives. I had seen others and I knew that the opportunity was too good to miss.
'For weeks, nothing happened, but I was not worried since my aunty kept reassuring me. Then one day she said her boss was ready to see me," Osaro recollected.
When she got to Akagbin's boss, Mrs. Rosemary Oshodin, she expressed doubt that Osaro would be a good worker. 'But I was desperate. I went on my knees and she told me that I would have to swear an oath not to run away from where I was going in Italy. I agreed," said Osaro.
When they got to the priestess, who incidentally was Rosemary Oshodin's in-law, she wasted no time in taking Osaro to one of the shrines in her house and made her swear an oath. 'She said that if I opened my mouth anyhow, or ran away from where they were taking me in Italy or tried to prove stubborn, something terrible would happen to me. I was scared. They told me to tie a red wrapper. The woman (priestess), gave me kola to chew after which she also gave me something to drink. She then started saying some things, which I repeated after her.
'After that, she cut my finger nails, cut some hair from my private part, and told me to write my name in a sheet of paper. She also collected my pant."
When she got home Osaro told her cousin what happened at the shrine and expressed her intention to inform her mother, but her cousin told her it was nothing but a way to scare her. She also offered to help her tell her mother.
Few weeks later, a man named Carlos was introduced to Osaro. 'They said he would take me to Italy where I would start work as housemaid, but I did not see him until September."
When Carlos came, he was in a hurry, so Osaro had to leave without going home to say goodbye to her parents. 'We left the following day he arrived Benin. We went to Iyare Motor Park where we boarded a bus to Lagos. In Lagos, three other people joined us, one boy and two other girls. I don't know where they came from because I did not talk to them. We went to Seme border and a bike took each of us separately across the border to the Republic of Benin."
According to Osaro, the journey was smooth until they got to the Togolese border: 'Carlos told us that he wanted to take us to Ghana, where he would give us documents to travel. But when we got to Togo border, he became afraid. He gave me one necklace which he said would make the police not to disturb me. He also gave me money to give police if they eventually disturbed me."
However the Togolese immigration officials proved a tough nut to crack. 'They asked where I came from, I said I was a Ghanaian and was returning to Ghana. They spoke to me in Ghanaian language, but I couldn't understand, not to talk of speaking it," Osaro said.
It was not long before she found herself in Nigeria; her dream of going to Italy aborted.
But Rosemary Oshodin insisted she committed no crime but only helped her daughter in Italy to get somebody who would help her raise her baby in the good old African tradition. According to her, she started the process when her daughter took in last year and accelerated it after she delivered in June this year.
She said the oath she made Osaro to swear was meant to ensure that she did not become a bad girl while in Italy. 'You know that many of them change when they get there," she said.
Asked why she did not make her own daughter swear an oath when she was leaving for Italy seven years ago, she retorted, 'I trust her not to do any bad thing."
Oshodin added that the route they took in taking Osaro out of Nigeria was 'nothing new."
Weeping uncontrollably, she said she did not know that her desire to see that Osaro lived a better life in Italy would put her in trouble. 'All I know is that they said they needed a maid. All the things that happened afterwards, I did not bargain for."
However the Executive Secretary of NAPHTIP, Mrs. Carol Ndugba, said only Rosemary Oshodin and Akagbu might be prosecuted while the priestess would serve as a witness. She said whether the victims are willing or not, the agency had a duty to fish out the traffickers and make them face the consequences of their actions. 'Most of the victims don't know what they are entering into until they have entered into it. We are talking of them (victims) working and the madams collecting the money."
SATURDAY PUNCH, November 12, 2005