BY Ndahi Marama, Maiduguri

Immigration boss, Borno State, Babayo Alkali and The suspects

FIVE persons including a Marine Engineer, suspected to be engaging in human trafficking, have been arrested at Banki, a border town, 126 km from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital by men of the Nigerian Immigration Services, border patrol team while they were about crossing over to Cameroun republic. The suspects were arrested with a 26- year-old girl suspected to be a victim.

The suspected victim identified as Stephenie told Crime Alert that she was actually going to Cameroun with her fiancee to work and earn a living when they were arrested by the men of the immigration services. According to her, she is an orphan and lived in Orile, Lagos and her decision to follow her fiancee was borne out of hardship as the only job she can get in Nigeria would fetch a paltry N5, 000 a month which is not enough to pay her transport money to the working place not to talk of her feeding and rent as well as other needs.

Another suspect, Christopher Bob (32) said he was trained as a Marine Engineer and has been living in Gabon but when he returned to Nigeria, life was unbearable and he decided to move on to Cameroun to start life afresh and his fiancee also decided to come along with him. On why he had to go to Cameroun through a notorious human trafficking route, Banki, he said, he was aware that his papers were not legal papers and he decided to go through the illegal way if that would satisfy his desire as he took his fate in his hands.

However, the Comptroller, Nigerian Immigration Services, Borno state Command, Babayo Alkali said the suspects were heading to Libya en-route to Italy when they were arrested. According to Alkali, they do not have visas or any employment papers nor do they have any reasonable means of livelihood. “One of them in fact, has no passport. They intended to travel by land through Cameroun, Tchad, Libya and finally Italy and they were arrested during a stop and search exercise by our men of the border guard.”

He recalled that in 2009, the Borno state Command arrested a total number of 155 persons involved in human trafficking while in 2010 there was no single arrest made, and attributed it to a change of route by the perpetrators. He assured that his men were however resolute in their work hence the recent success recorded at Banki. Alkali said the suspects: Christopher Bob Ebisi, Avnenabiku Jonh, Nwanko Joshua Nnabucke, Oyibo Nelson Goodey and Stephanie Stephen would be handed over to National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffick In Persons (NAPTIP), for further investigation. While calling on the general public to support the Command in its bid to ensure service delivery, he said the Nigerian Immigration Services, Borno State Command, remains committed to carrying out its statutory duties as required.