A 19-year-old Jato Blessing (real name withheld) has been turned into a sexual object at a mining site in Burkina Faso after she was lured by human traffickers with a well-paying job through her Nigerian boyfriend.
Sometime last June, Blessing was not seen at her family home in Adikpo in the Kwande Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State. Her parents initially thought she went to their other house in the town. So, they called her. At first, the number went through but it became unreachable on subsequent dials, making her parents grow worried.
The family live in Adikpo, but they hail from Ushongo Town in the Ushongo LGA of Benue. They then began a desperate search from family friends to police stations and all went to naught. They were unaware that their child had been taken away from the shores of her homeland courtesy of someone she thought was her lover.
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Blessing had been with Senege Sandra, a grinding machine operator in Adikpo, assisting her with the business for daily stipends. During a phone interview on Friday, Sandra told FIJ that Blessing left her place in March. She was not aware of her situation until a few weeks ago.
Attempts to find Blessing failed until sometime in October when she got a phone and messaged Enoch, her brother, through Facebook Messenger.
First page of the letter written by Blessing’s father.
Copying state and federal lawmakers from the community in a December 5 letter, Samuel, Blessing’s father, appealed to the traditional ruler of Kwande for his assistance in rescuing his daughter.
“In June 2024, my family’s nightmare began when my wife noticed that [Blessing’s] phone was unreachable and she was nowhere to be found. Despite our desperate search, we were unable to locate her until early October 2024, when she reached out to one of my sons, Enoch, through Facebook,” Samuel, a retired civil servant, wrote.
HOW SHE WAS LURED
The family was unrelenting and tracked the channel through which their daughter was trafficked.
Second page of the letter written by Blessing’s father.
It was one Hingir Cletus, also a resident of Adikpo, who sold Blessing into the trafficking scheme. Upon his arrest, Cletus (alias Terry), confirmed how he facilitated the lady’s journey with a commission of N1.5 million into modern and sexual slavery, according to the family.
Cletus promised to land Blessing a well-paying job at a new boutique in Lagos State, a tactic commonly employed by human traffickers in Nigeria.
“My second son immediately sprang into action. [Blessing] mentioned a suspect, Hingir Cletus (known as Terry), who had sold her. Through a mutual contact named Sandra [earlier mentioned], my son was informed that Terry had a history of trafficking girls to unknown locations, from which they never returned,” Blessing’s father wrote.
“Sandra also confirmed that he [Cletus] had collected my daughter’s phone number earlier in June, around the time she disappeared. To our shock, she revealed that she had been deceived by someone offering a job in Lagos. Instead of an opportunity, she was sold for N1.5 million to a woman who transported her to Burkina Faso.”
A screenshot of Blessing’s chat with her brother Jeremiah.
The police arrested Cletus and handed him over to the Benue office of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for a specialised investigation.
When FIJ called Dillo, the officer handling the case, he declined to comment, directing FIJ “to call the zonal commander” instead. He also turned down a request for the commander’s phone number.
The letter by Blessing’s father stated, “With the help of my son’s friends, Terry was tracked down and handed over to the police at the Adikpo Divisional Police Station in Adikpo. The case was then transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Makurdi, Benue State, and subsequently moved to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Benue State Command.
“A few days ago, my daughter contacted one of my sons that those people [the trafficking ring in Burkina Faso] noticed she was giving information about them and so decided to initiate them with a warning that if any of them gives out any information again, the person would die. They also threatened to relocate her to an unknown location. They are left hungry, asked to trek for kilometres and they have different marks on their bodies now due to the initiation.
“When we didn’t hear from NAPTIP, Benue State Command, my eldest son went to NAPTIP national headquarters and complained about the same issue but this is almost a month now, we haven’t heard anything from them. They promised to call him when they are ready to start an investigation but they haven’t called him till today.
“I kindly request your assistance in ensuring that my daughter and several other ladies together with her are rescued from their captors and justice is served. It is my sincere hope that justice will prevail and that this dangerous network of traffickers is dismantled to prevent further harm to others.”
SEXUAL HARASSMENT
Pinne Fanen, a family source, told FIJ that Blessing had complained to her parents that she had been turned into an object of sexual gratification to miners in the French-speaking West African nation.
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“The young lady was trafficked to Burkina Faso. Her helpless parents are distraught as I speak with you,” the source explained.
“The last time the young lady reached out to her family, she complained of being sodomised at mining camps where her captors usually move her, alongside other victims, to almost daily. Her situation is very dire, hence our appeal for help.
“She said when you get to Burkina Faso, there is a place called ‘Camting.’ That is where you will enter another vehicle to the particular place they are, which is called ‘Fonce.’
“Men would sleep with them and the woman [the principal trafficker] would collect the money. If they are not cooperative or rebellious, they would be beaten and locked up in a room. They would further be starved of food.”
CLETUS RELEASED ON BAIL
Blessing’s family also complained that Cletus was released without their knowledge. “All of a sudden, we started seeing him in the community. People who knew we had arrested him notified us, wondering why he was released,” Jeremiah, Blessing’s brother, told FIJ.
Hingir Cletus.
A source at the NAPTIP command shared their knowledge of the case with FIJ in confidence on Friday. They explained that even though Cletus had been released, their investigation was ongoing.
“As far as I am aware, Cletus spent almost a month in our facility and we had to renew his detention warrant about two times,” they said. “We did not just release him, a university lecturer came and stood surety for him.”
“We have told the family that we will do our best to get their child back to this country. But it is important to know that trafficking someone from Nigeria to another country is easy, but rescuing them back home is usually difficult.
“If I were a brother to the girl, I might not react differently to the handling of the issue. But they should be patient. I can tell you that Cletus has been reporting to the command according to his bail condition and he is doing everything to raise money to settle the traffickers in Burkina Faso so that they can release the girl.”
CLETUS ADMITS TO FIJ
FIJ reached Cletus for comment on Friday. During a phone interview, he confirmed his role in the trafficking scheme.
Gift (alias Madam Ben). Source: Cletus.
Cletus explained that Blessing used to be his girlfriend before he organised her trip to Burkina Faso. While denying that he collected N1.5 million to lure the girl into the scheme, he claimed that Blessing had always wanted to travel to Burkina Faso.
“She used to be my girlfriend and had always told me she would like to travel to Burkina Faso,” Cletus said.
“I did not collect N1.5 million. It was Gerrard, my brother, who was responsible for how she went there.”
On why he was released by NAPTIP, Cletus said he “was released to as to go out and make efforts on how to facilitate [Blessing’s] return and a civil servant with a landed property in Makurdi, the state capital, had stood surety” for him.
“My brother had earlier paid at least four girls to travel to Burkina Faso but they ran away with the money. So, when [Blessing] was willing to go, my brother asked to link me with a woman called Gift (alias Madam Ben) in Burkina Faso. That woman gave me only N80,000 to follow them to Lagos from where they eventually travelled to Burkina Faso,” Cletus said.
“When I was arrested, I called Madam Ben and she told me she would release [Blessing] by the end of November. But she has yet to release her. She is in Nigeria.”
On who would pay for Blessing’s return, Cletus said, “Madam Ben did not ask me for money, it is [Blessing] who reported to her brother that someone sold her, that she would have to pay N1.5 million before she would be freed.
“I believe that I was arrested because she said I was the one who sold her. Truly, I followed her to Lagos. So, I am the one who can explain better. My father is late; I only have my mother. Everything rests on me because our family is poor. I am trying my best and God will help me. Nothing bad will happen to her and she will come back safely. I had asked about how much her transport fare could be and I was told it is N200,000.”
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Hussaina, a contact person at the NAPTIP headquarters, told FIJ on Friday that the matter was taking some time because it involved two countries. “You know it involves two countries, that’s why it’s taking some time. But since he [Jeremiah] has been visiting our office, tell him to keep in touch so that he would be in the know when the investigation commences,” Hussaina said.
Fisayo Soyombo, FIJ’s editor-in-chief, recently investigated how human traffickers promised vulnerable Nigerians non-existent dollar-paying jobs in Burkina Faso only to end up in a human trafficking scheme. To raise a job facilitation fee, some victims resort to selling all they had worked for in Nigeria, including homeware and landed properties.
By the time the reality of being victims of trafficking dawns on them, some victims are left to carry on slave-like lives at the hands of their captors. Others are forced to lure their friends in Nigeria to the country as a replacement before their traffickers let them go.
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