Omoniyi Azizat, one of the 172 returnees from Libya who arrived in Lagos early yesterday, expressed sorrow for tricking her father to obtain N800,000 for her ill-fated voyage to Libya.
The 172 people were airlifted to Lagos’ Murtala Muhammad International Airport.
Azizat, a 21-year-old Lagos resident, said all she hoped was that Libya would be like London.
She said: “From my father’s custody, a friend convinced me to meet her in Ibadan where I was introduced to the idea of traveling to Libya where I was told that I could work and receive a monthly salary of N120,000.
“I deceived my father that I wanted to establish a business and he gave me N800,000, but I used it for the Libyan trip through the desert.
“I became a slave and prostitute in Libya; I am not lying, I raised the equivalent of N2 million as a prostitute to free myself from my trafficker.
“I want to go back to school. I stopped schooling at SS2 and have learned my lessons. The lessons are very bitter, I wasted my life.
“I do not know my father’s location. I lost everything that I thought I could bring back home when the police raided our house and threw all of us into prison.
“We were dispossessed of our savings and property. I lost the phone in which l had my father’s contact.
“I have to wait till my transport allowance is paid before I can buy a phone and try to gamble with numbers to know if I can get my father’s contact.”
This brings the total number of stranded Nigerians to 330 who will be returned to their homeland through the European Union.
The returnees were among those who became stranded after their futile attempt to find greener pastures in another country.
There are 92 male adults, six male children, and nine male newborns in this batch. A total of 53 female adults, 12 female children, and three female babies were also present.
Around 9.48 p.m., the returnees arrived in an Al Buraq Airline Boeing 737-400 with the registration number 5A-WAC at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja.
NEMA, the National Emergency Management Agency, met them at the NAHCO wing of the airport.
Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, the Acting Coordinator of NEMA’s Lagos Territorial Office, said the new 175 returnees were stranded in Libya.
“The returnees were brought back by the International Organization for Migration as part of a voluntary repatriation program for distressed people,” he explained.
“The EU sponsored the repatriation of the stranded Nigerians who had failed in their attempt to search for greener pastures outside Nigeria.”
Ada Peter
