Libya-bound Ogun Girl Rescued by Immigration in Kebbi

Ismail Adebayo in Birnin Kebbi

The Kebbi State Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has rescued and handed over a 13-year-old girl, Temitope Marvellous, to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).

While briefing journalists before handing over the girl to NAPTIP officials in her office, the state Comptroller of Immigration, Rabi Bashir Nuhu, said the girl was intercepted at Koko border post in Kebbi State by patrol team of the Service in a commercial bus coming from Ogun State to Sokoto through Kebbi State.

Comptroller said after interrogating her,  they found out that she is a 13-year-old girl and the phone contact they gave her belongs to some people in Libya, which was very suspicious.

She said:  “All the contacts were for someone in Libya, which made the officers to have the belief that the girl was being trafficked.”

The comptroller added that the girl claimed that she was going to Libya as a house help, “which may not be true.”

Nuhu assured Nigerians that the agency would not fold its arm and allow people commit such crimes as it will arrest and prosecute anyone found in such act.

While handing the girl to NAPTIP representative from Sokoto office of the agency, Head of the team, Rilwan Mohammed Buhari, stated that the agency would investigate and unite the victim with her family.

While responding to questions from journalists, the victim, Marvellous, said she was asked to come over to Sokoto by someone she referred to as friend. She said she was staying with her grandmother in Ogun State.