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January 8, 2025
SaharaReporters had reported that 28-year-old Odunayo arrived Nigeria on Friday, January 3, 2025, following SaharaReporters’ story about her ordeal in the middle eastern country.
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), says it has commenced a rehabilitation programme for a Nigerian woman Odunayo Eniola Isaac, who was trafficked to Iraq and brutalised for a year and 10 months.
The Director General of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, has directed officers of the Counselling and Rehabilitation Department of the Agency as well as operatives of the Intelligence and International Cooperation Unit (IICU) to immediately commence a comprehensive rehabilitation procedure and interview session with Odunayo.
SaharaReporters had reported that 28-year-old Odunayo arrived Nigeria on Friday, January 3, 2025, following SaharaReporters’ story about her ordeal in the middle eastern country.
She returned to Nigeria following the intervention of the officials of the Nigerian mission in Jordan, that oversees Iraq, who took action on her case after the report.
In December 2024, SaharaReporters exclusively reported that Odunayo, who hails from Osun State in the South-West region of Nigeria, issued a distressing and heart-wrenching plea for assistance to return to Nigeria.
Odunayo was allegedly a victim of human trafficking perpetrated by one Alhaja Yusuf Shakira, notoriously known as Mama Uganda, who deceitfully transported her to Iraq with promises of a better life.
Having endured almost two years of inhumane treatment, brutal physical torture, and degrading dehumanisation at the hands of her Iraqi employer, Saba Akram, and his spouse, Odunayo's emotional and psychological well-being was severely compromised.
Overwhelmed with despair and desperation, she raised the alarm and implored the Nigerian authorities to facilitate her urgent return to Nigeria, lest she loses her life.
Odunayo conveyed the depth of her desperation, stating that if she remained in Iraq for even a short period longer, her very existence would be under threat.
Odunayo, who narrated her ordeal to SaharaReporters through a Nigerian-based human rights advocacy organisation, Hopes Haven Foundation, narrated that she was trafficked by Alhaja Shakira to Iraq a year and 10 months earlier through an Iraqi agency identified as Blend Warani, with a promise of a job opportunity.
According to her, she left Nigeria in February 2023 to work as a domestic help in Iraq.
Speaking while receiving the victim at the NAPTIP Headquarters in Abuja, the Director General expressed sadness over the traumatic experience and the hardship faced by Odunayo and ordered the immediate commencement of a comprehensive rehabilitation programme, counselling as well as an interview to ascertain the medical status, nature of assistance needed, and immediate psychosocial need of the victim.
The Director General said, “I just finished interacting with the victim. I must say that she had a close shave with death and we are all happy that she is alive to tell her painful story.
“On January 22, 2023, she left Nigeria and arrived in Baghdad, Iraq the next day; January 23, 2023 and was received at the airport by officials of WB Warani Manpower (the company she was registered to work for). She was taken to the hospital on January 24, 2023 to certify her medically fit for the job she would be assigned to do.
“Her Iraqi agent, Alhaja Shakirat Yusuf, whom she knows as only ‘Mama Uganda’ came to WB Warani Manpower to sign her in officially on January 25, 2023 and was assigned to work for an Iraqi family of eight (six children and two parents) on January 29, 2023. Her work hours span about twenty hours plus a day, with little or no resting time.
“According to Miss Odunayo, after one month of work, she requested her salary and her madam said because of the high commission in paying money into Nigeria accounts, she would be paid every two months and she agreed, but after four months, she still was not paid. Her ordeal then began when she dared to request payment.
“Her phone was confiscated to prevent communication with members of her family. Each time she asked for her remuneration or spoke about it, she suffered a beating resulting in bleeding and bodily injuries.
“That, at one point, her madam bound her hands and feet and threw her into the dogs’ cage until 3 am before she was released to continue with her work.
“Because of her level of exploitation and trauma, I have directed the relevant department and operatives of the agency to commence immediate profiling, interview, and the comprehensive process of rehabilitation for her.
“This is to enable the agency to assess her medical status, the nature of assistance and skills needed, and to design a part of ensuring her reunion with her family.
“Also, NAPTIP shall also do the needful to ensure justice for her.
“I wish to use this opportunity to thank all our partners, the Federal Ministry of Foreign, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Embassies and Nigeria Mission abroad, other partnering Ministry, Department and Agencies (MDAs), Hope Haven Foundation, the Media and other stakeholders, for a successful collaboration and support which resulted in the eventual arrival of Miss Eniola Isacc.”
Bello urged Nigerian youths and parents to always be careful and “think twice before jumping at any juicy offer of jobs abroad”.
“Over the past few months, we have intercepted scores of youths, mostly girls, at various points of exit across Nigeria, and their destinations have been some of the volatile countries in the Middle East,” Bello said.
“Certainly, a dangerous journey of this nature could have been avoided with simple caution and a check from NAPTIP”, the NAPTIP boss said.
In her testimony, Eniola said, “I thank God that I am alive. I will not wish that my enemy passes through what I experienced. I never thought I could survive the painful ordeal.”
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