An Ivorian tribunal in Abidjan on Friday struck out a case against four suspected Nigerian human traffickers and operators of a child prostitution ring, which parades Nigerian teenagers, for lack of evidence.
The suspects were Blessing Uvitare, 38, Blessing James, 26, Anerica Florence, 29, and Lucky Amadiegu.
The President of the Tribunal, Bonke Sylvain, said the suspected traffickers were released because the victims, who should stand as witnesses, had been repatriated by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP).
Sylvain had questioned the suspects on their alleged involvement in trafficking of Nigerian teenage girls to Cote d’Ivoire, who served as “sex slaves’’ by sleeping with many men daily to pay their patrons for release.
All the suspects denied involvement in the trade.
Uvitare and James, however, said they lived in the same brothel with the girls.
Uvitare said, “it was cheaper to live in the brothel than to rent a house in Abidjan.’’
The Ivorian state prosecutor, Nahi Jerome, also confirmed that the victims had been taken away by NAPTIP.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that the suspected traffickers were arrested by the Ivorian police, working with Interpol and a local NGO, Family for the Protection of Human Rights (FEDPH), on Sept. 5.
The President of FEDPH, Musa Assemota, said he had notified the Nigerian anti-trafficking agency on the arrest of suspects of child trafficking and 19 of their teenage victims who were caught in the trade on Sept. 5.
He said 10 of the teenage girls were repatriated by NAPTIP on Sept. 10 and Sept. 11, while the others refused to go home.
Assemota told the court that the NAPTIP officials met with the state prosecutors to explain their mission before the girls were removed.
He said the officials were assured that the case would be pursued against the suspected traffickers without the girls.
The FEPDH president presented pictures of the teenage girls who were repatriated by NAPTIP but the tribunal said it was “inadmissible’’.?
Organisations, namely, FEDPH, Interpol and the Ivorian police had been investigating the surge of underage and teenage Nigerian prostitutes in Cote d’Ivoire.
The organisations have been making frequent arrests and reporting those arrested to the Nigerian Embassy.
Nigeria’s Ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire, Mr Kayode Obajuluwa, said the embassy had been overwhelmed by the number of young girls who escaped from child – prostitution rings that it could not mobilise funds to send them home.
Obajuluwa also said FEDPH had notified embassy officials of arrests of Nigerian teenage prostitutes and the prosecution of some suspected traffickers by Ivorian authorities.
The ambassador said he received “several death threats’’ since he embarked on reforming the consular section of the embassy, which had been fingered by FEDPH, arrested traffickers and victims for issuing consular cards to teenage prostitutes.
“I have received messages threatening my life here since I started changing things relating to visa issuance, which involved some touts of the Nigerian community and the issuance of consular cards,’’ he said..
Obajuluwa said the Consular Officer, Mr Obinna Ogbonna, had many cases to attend to on the same day of the case.
The Nigerian Embassy was not represented in court.
The FEDPH Assemota, said NAPTIP officials verified the issuance of consular cards by the embassy to traffickers and their victims, who used them as safeguard against arrest by the Ivorian police.
He said 19 girls were arrested by the Ivorian police but nine of the girls insisted they were not ready to return to Nigeria.
“Since the NAPTIP officials left on Monday and Tuesday, we have arrested two more girls who showed interest in returning to Nigeria,’’ Assemota said.
NAN learnt that NAPTIP officials held meetings with the Nigerian ambassador and other top officials, Interpol and the Ivorian police.
Thousands of Nigerian underage and teenage girls, mostly from Edo and Delta states, work in brothels, streets, markets, marked houses and farms in Abidjan and its environs as “sex slaves’’.
Investigations reveal that the girls are moved into Cote d’Ivoire, under the guise of being family members of traffickers, who later sell them to “madams’’ who put them under bondage as “sex tools for customers’’.
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