Libya returnee places curse on all those who raped her in captivity

Loveth Ekumabo, 25-year-old Libya returnee, who blamed her father’s incestuous behaviour for her decision to flee to Libya, has narrated how she was subjected to the inhuman condition.

She described her journey to Libya as “jumping from frying pan into fire’’.

She has, in her life, gone through bitterness, especially her stay in faraway Libya, where she underwent forced labour and was made a subject of serial rape.

In an interview with NAN, she cursed all those who raped her in Libya.

Other Nigerians who returned from Libya have narrated their harrowing experience.

Harrison Okotie, who is married with two children, is one of the returnees with gory story to tell.

Okotie, who hails from Ughelli south local government area of Delta, left everything in Benin, where he had lived all his life, before leaving for Libya in search of greener pasture.

Recalling his journey through the desserts without food and water, he said the inhuman treatment meted to him made him realise that there is no place like home.

“I will never in my life think of leaving my country again. Whether there is work or no, I will stay here and manage with my family,” he said.

“The Nigerians held-up in Garian prisons are well over 4,000. The Libya authorities do not want to release them because they are making money from them.

“They will call you from prison and ask you to call your people in Nigeria to send money for them to release you. Even if you succeed in getting money from Nigeria, they still would not let you go.

“It is a big business. They are not happy that the United Nations and international bodies are helping to deport people to their countries. So they now keep Nigerians in their underground prisons.

“It was a horrible experience. One day a truck that carried 28 people, 15 of them died on the way due to lack of food and water.”

Sunday Ehiagina, another returnee, squandered his life savings on the trip to Libya.

Ehiagina, a native of Irrua in Esan Central local government area of Edo, said he owned and operated a shoe factory for seven years in Benin.

In Libya’s Garian and Saba prisons many people are tortured.

Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons(NAPTIP), had disclosed that more than 25,000 Nigerians have been held in slave and sex camps in Libya.