A Nigerian lady, Okoangbele Quincy, who was sold into slavery in Kuwait has recalled her ordeal in the Middle East, and how two human traffickers, Paul Akpogherhe, 26, and Theophilus Ebiowei, 28, led her into the wilderness after collecting N450,000 from her.
Paul and Theophilus(both pictured) sold the 23-year-old for N1.2m. However, they are currently awaiting prosecution in police detention after Quincy found her way back to Nigeria, and drew the attention of the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) to the activities of the duo.
A daughter to a military officer, OrijoReporter gathered that Quincy, a caterer, met Paul in April at Festac in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State at an event, and they became friends.
Along the line, he introduced her to his friend, Theophilus, and both sold the idea of working as a caterer in the oil rich Arab nation to her, promising to make it a reality if she could pay them N450,000(Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) to process her visa and pay for the flight ticket.
Believing the grass was greener in Kuwait than in Nigeria, Quincy raised the money, got her visa, flight ticket and later landed in the Middle-East in the first week of June, and was picked up at the airport by an agent.
According to her, “Trouble started when the agent asked me if I had been briefed by the people who introduced me to her? I said no, but they said you would help me secure a job. To my surprise, the agent then told me that she had bought me from those people and that I was now her slave.
“I told her that was not the arrangement. I explained to her that Paul and Theophilus said she will help me secure a job as there are better job opportunities in Kuwait, and they never mentioned they were selling me into slavery.
“She told me that I had no choice and that she has spent money to buy me and that she must get value for her money’s worth. Sensing that I may cause her trouble, the agent immediately sold me to another family who now recruited me as a slave.
“I was given a uniform worn by slaves in Kuwait. Anyone that sees me wearing that uniform immediately knows I am a slave, and treats me like a leper. Apart from performing menial jobs, I was subjected to different inhuman treatment as a slave.
“As soon as it dawned on me that I was now a slave in a strange country, I began to seek ways to escape. Luckily, I met another Nigerian girl who has also been a slave to another family for almost a year, so she was a bit familiar with the area.
“I told her that I wanted to go back to Nigeria since what I was being subjected to is not what I bargained for. She said there was no way of escaping, except we get to the Nigerian embassy in Kuwait. So, we both agreed that whenever we got an opportunity, we would flee to the Nigerian Embassy.
“As God would have it, the opportunity came and we left but not without hitches, as every taxi we stopped refused to halt because we were clad in a uniform which identified us as slaves. After attempting to board a cab for several hours, we pleaded with an Indian woman to help us stop a taxi after narrating our ordeal to her, since we had no clothes other than the slave uniform we wore to change into.
“The Indian woman stopped a taxi while we stood far off. She pleaded with the taxi driver to take us to the Nigerian Embassy. That was how we were able to get to the embassy where we got help. When we got to the Nigerian Embassy, the officials after listening to us, assisted us with necessary traveling documents to travel back to Nigeria. It was at the airport that officials bought clothes for us to change from the slave uniform before boarding a flight to Nigeria.”
