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A 30-year-old suspected human trafficker, Martha Edea, was recently arrested by security operatives in Lagos. The suspect was seen with a creamy substance, she said was a specially prepared charm for her to get more customers when she gets to Abidjan where she had been a prostitute in the past one year.

According to her, “I prepared two charms for the trip. One is a cream to make me to see work or get customers. Everybody dey use am. My friend recommended it to me. The other is ‘back to sender’. I bought that in an open market in Benin.”

Martha, a mother of two, according to her, she was lured into prostitution in Ivory Coast by one Mariam who told her there were chances of securing a good job there. She was later introduced to sex work where she slaved for months to raise 300,000 Cefa (N180, 000) for her custodian.

Martha was later abandoned in Abidjan by Mariam, who after collecting the repayment travelled to Spain.

“Immediately, I paid her, I was left with nothing. I struggled to raise some money to come back home to raise my own team because, you can only survive when you have girls working for you”, she added.

Arrested with Martha were two teenagers she recruited in Benin City. They were en-route Abidjan through Lagos when those who suspected them reported them to RRS officers in Ojodu Berger.

The teenagers, Francess Bamidele 19 and Elo Etim, 18 were recruited in Benin, Edo State through Martha’s proxies, who she gave N10, 000:00 each. They were both promised good jobs with attractive pay – pack when they get to Ivory Coast.

While Francess didn’t inform her guardian about the trip, Elo notified her mother after being fully briefed that the job is prostitution, the mother prayed for her, assisted with some money and a phone number to call.

She was reported to have said ‘instead of giving it free to boys on the streets, go and make money with it where you are going’.