Abigail, one of the victims of a Libya based human trafficking ring operating in Nigeria, has died, days after she was rescued from a prostitution cartel in Libya.
It was reported that 26yrs old Abigail, a Nigerian lady from the South-South, was among more than 500 girls trafficked to Libya for prostitution by a Nigerian syndicate allegedly led by a couple, Alhaji Muritala Sanni and his wife Alhaja Lateefat Sanni, who are now on the run.
According to Mirror, Tunde Oshokoya, a human rights activist and private investigator who worked with the Alliance of Rights Defenders (ARD), a non-profit organisation based in Lagos involved in rescuing three of the trafficked girls revealed Abigail’s death.
He said “It is with heavy heart that we announce Abigail’s passing. She died after a brief illness she came down with while she was in Libya. Since we rescued her, we took her for treatment but she gave up the ghost. “It is sad that ARD, an NGO took up the responsibility to rescue and rehabilitate trafficked victims without any assistance from government”. Barrister Ojay Akinwale, the Chief Executive Officer of ARD expressed sadness over the death and urged government to take human trafficking seriously.
Mirror had reported that Abigail was among three trafficked victims rescued from prostitution in Libya by ARD. She had claimed in the interview that she was trafficked to Libya in 2013, after she was lured there to work as an Auxiliary nurse.
She also claimed that she was forced to abort about 320 pregnancies for girls working for the prostitution ring in Libya. Abigail who was very ill during the interview had expressed fear that she would die if she exposed the Libya human trafficking syndicate.
She added that soon after her rescue, she received a threat from the syndicate in Libya that she will die if she exposed them. In spite of the threat, Abigail went ahead and narrated her ordeal in the hands of the traffickers.”
