A Nigerian migrant who recently returned to the country has narrated what she passed through in Libya while seeking passage to Europe.
One of the returnees, identified as Loveth Ekumabo, said her father’s attempted rape forced her to flee to Libya.
Ekumabo, from Uhunwode local government, is one of the hundreds of Edo indigenes that have been repatriated from Libya. They are currently in the custody of the state government undergoing rehabilitation for effective integration into society.
Aside her traumatic experience during her seven-month sojourn in the North African country, pregnant Ekumabo may have to live with the pain of not knowing the father of her unborn child.
Narrating her ordeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, Ekumabo alleged that the exposure of her father’s attempted incestuous relationship with her resulted in a big family row.
“After I exposed what my father wanted to do to me, fight broke out at home and I had to run away for my safety.
“If you want to cross from Agadez to Tripoli without money, you either get raped as a girl or get beaten up as a boy. The agency can also sell you out as slave to get their money before you are allowed to cross to Tripoli with your new owner.
“I saw dead people; boys being killed; girls raped to death; and people sold as slaves.
“The worst part is that Nigerians are among those Arabs who treat fellow Nigerians badly.
“It was while I was about to cross to Tripoli that four Arab men raped me continuously without stop; after which I was allowed to cross to Tripoli where I discovered that I was pregnant.
“When I called my family that I was coming back, my mother asked them to tell me to stay back and try my best to cross to Europe.
“But I said to myself that since she was not the one who sent me to Libya, she had no right to tell me to cross to Europe,” Ekumabo said.
