TELL Magazine

Najeeb Rukoyat Kemi, a 28-year old Nigerian, has made a passionate appeal to the Nigerian government to come to her rescue in Oman where she is being presently held in captivity. Kemi hailed from Ikire town in Osun State.
According to a release duly signed by Ajibola Abayomi, President of Journalists International Forum For Migration (JIFORM), she left for the country in November 2016 in search for greener pasture after being talked into the deal by a close friend. But on arrival in the country, her host seized her international passport and other vital documents to retain her service as housemaid.

While narrating her ordeal to Ajibola Abayomi, in an exclusive telephone chat, she said within the last four years she has been resold four times to different masters where she worked as housemaid on monthly stipends that was never paid in most cases.

Some months ago, according to her, she was traded off to her present master for 800 rials (N700,000). Although her current master placed her on a monthly salary of N70,000 per month, she claimed she has been under serious sexual harassment.

“At the current house I am now working, the man wants to sleep with me, but I have been refusing him so he told me to go back to the office that brought me to him. I am being starved of food and kept indoor without being allowed to go out.

“I can no longer cope with this job so please I want to go back home. Kindly assist me. I have an Ordinary National Diploma from Offa Polytechnic; there are better opportunities in Nigeria. I am tired, all the money I have been getting I used to send it home to assist my younger ones”, Kemi lamented.

Reacting to the plight of the lady, the Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Julie Okah—Donli said she was deeply concerned and shared the pain and agony of the said victim through an interview granted by the agency’s Press Officer, Mr Adekoye Vincent.

He said: “In line with its determination to continue to respond to the plight of victims, the agency solicits for information that will enable it to work with international and local partners with a view to rescuing her and ensuring her safe return to Nigeria.”

The JIFORM president said all the other vital information about the victim would be forwarded to NAPTIP for further action. “We won’t be tired of doing this all the time. Recall that in between July and September this year JIFORM was instrumental to the call for the rescue of 138 Nigerian ladies trafficked to Saudi Arabia and addition 435 women also trapped in Yemen, Oman, Lebanon and other Arab nations. We shall provide her details as well as other ladies to the NAPTIP and follow up on the rescue mission ditto for the prosecution of the trafficking agency involved” Ajibola pledged.