Trafficker wanted in three countries arrested in Oyo

The Comptroller of Immigration, Oyo State Command, Innocent Akatu, said a notorious trafficker, 30-year-old Falilat Janta, has been arrested.

Janta was on the wanted lists of Nigeria, Benin Republic and Togolese immigrations services.

She was arrested with her baby girl in Iseyin area of Oyo State after being on the run for a long time.

Akatu said, “This is a special occasion because a notorious trafficker who had been on the wanted lists of Nigeria, Benin Republic and Togolese immigration departments has been arrested. She is young but she has been involved deeply in human trafficking.

“She was once arrested but because she was pregnant, she was let off the hook on compassionate grounds. She has since proved to be unrepentant. She trafficked four ladies to Nigeria and handed them over to end users.

“Two of them worked in Lekki, in Lagos. We have two letters from the Togolese government seeking our help to locate the girls. Their parents had been looking for them for some years.”

It was alleged that Janta also engaged the girls in prostitution, a claim she denied even though she confessed to bringing them to Nigeria illegally.

“I am from Togo and I was doing house maid in Nigeria before I was arrested. I travelled home three years ago and brought the girls to Nigeria. I told their parents that they were going to Nigeria to work as house girls. I collected their salaries and kept for them. I did not use them for prostitution,” she said.

One of her victims, Akowa Yaovi, 28, said Janta told her that she would work in Nigeria and earn good salary but she had never been paid any money.

“I work in a local restaurant in Lekki area of Lagos State. She takes all the money. I have three children in Togo and they live with my husband,” said Yaovi.

Another victim, 21-year-old Joy Sama, said she escaped being raped by a man she was locked with in a room.

“I was taken to a room in Lagos and locked in there with a man who attempted to force himself on me but when I shouted for help, he left. Then people came to my aid. That was the only time I was almost forced to have sex with a man,” she said.