Temitope Marvellous, a 13-year-old girl, was rescued by the Kebbi State Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and given to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
State Comptroller of Immigration Rabi Bashir Nuhu said the girl was detained at Koko border post in Kebbi State by a patrol team of the Service in a commercial bus travelling from Ogun State to Sokoto through Kebbi State. She was briefing journalists before delivering the girl to NAPTIP officials in her office.
The Comptroller reported that after questioning her, they discovered that she is a 13-year-old girl and that the phone number they gave her is associated with certain individuals in Libya, which was quite suspicious.
She said: “All the contacts were for someone in Libya, which made the officers to have the belief that the girl was being trafficked.”
The comptroller added that the girl claimed that she was going to Libya as a house help, “which may not be true.”
Nuhu assured Nigerians that the agency would not fold its arm and allow people commit such crimes as it will arrest and prosecute anyone found in such act.
While handing the girl to NAPTIP representative from Sokoto office of the agency, Head of the team, Rilwan Mohammed Buhari, stated that the agency would investigate and unite the victim with her family.
While responding to questions from journalists, the victim, Marvellous, said she was asked to come over to Sokoto by someone she referred to as friend. She said she was staying with her grandmother in Ogun State.