Chinedu Eze
30 September 2008
Lagos — Fake travel documents have exposed two young Nigerians girls who were apprehended by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) at the weekend at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport , Lagos on their way to Abidjan , Cote d'Voire as possible victims of human traffickers.
Faith Osadebamwen and Promise Alfred were apprehended by NIS officials when the names and photographs on the ECOWAS passports they wre carrying did not tally with their physical appearance and what they disclosed as their real names.
According to the passports in their possession at the time of their arrest, Faith Osadebamwen is Dorcas Omorose and Promise Alfred is Odulumen Mabel who were supposed to be tailors from Edo State .
Further interrogation revealed that the suspects did not know what they were actually going to do in Abidjan or who they were going to meet in the West African city.
Deputy Comptroller of Immigration in Charge of MMIA, Mr. Mike Longe, said the young girls could not say why they wanted to go to Abidjan , but insisted they were told that when they got to the city someone would meet them.
Although he did not confirm it, but there is suspicion that those who wanted to send the ladies to Abidjan wanted to use the Cote d'Voire capital as a leeway of taking them out of the country.
But Longe promised that NIS must get to the root of the matter, adding that the case might be that of the organized crime by human traffickers and therefore would need further investigation.
Faith told journalists that she could not identify the persons that got them the documents, adding that it was her intention to get to Abidjan and start a hair styling business there.
"I didn't know that they were giving me a fake document, they said that once I got to Abidjan that someone would meet me and I would work in a salon and make money to pay back, " she said.
NIS also apprehended one Chidinma Nwogugu, who allegedly secures fake travel documents for Nigerians through his contact who lives in South Africa . When interrogated, the suspect who claimed he was a native of Mbaise, Imo State , said that his contact was his brother who used the sophisticated facilities there to fake travel documents which he send back to him in Nigeria . Nwogugu said once he got the particulars of his clients he sends them to his brother in South Africa who prepares the passports and visas and send them back to Nigeria .
"When I secure the contracts, I send it to my brother in South Africa and he will help me process the visa and send it here, then I give it to the owners. I hardly make any profit because my brother does not remember me; it is only the clients who appreciate me that give me ten thousand naira or more. I started this in 2007", he explained. Reacting to these revelations, Longe said that some Nigerians make desperate efforts to by pass the system and get away with various crimes of forgery but Immigration was working "assiduously to uncover their plot." He also said NIS would further investigate the case further for more information.
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