The President of the Nigerian community in Cote d’Ivoire, Chief Michael Emeka Onwuchelu has lamented the spate at which human traffickers are luring young Nigerian girls to Cote d’Ivoire and ruining their lives there.

Onwuchelu regretted that many of the victims are minors and urged the federal government to urgently intervene and save the innocent children from the clutches of the depraved traffickers.

Between May 29, 2021 and this day, he said the Nigerian community has sent 730 Nigerian girls who were rescued back home.

He said: “I am using this opportunity to plead to the federal government of Nigeria to look into the issue of human trafficking whereby people trade Nigerians to Cote’ d’Ivoire. We have many Nigerians in Abidjan prisons not because most of them are criminals but they were unfortunate due to the wrong information or misinformation by individuals who brought them to the country.

“There is this set of people that usually come home at the festive period to recruit Nigerians with the impression that they are coming to give them employment with huge payment in Cote D’Ivoire. Some will even lie that they have businesses in Cote d’Ivoire that fetch them millions. They bring in minors (girls) in the name of jobs for prostitution. The Federal Government needs to look into this situation, it’s becoming overbearing.

“From 29th May 2021 to date, the Nigerian community has sent 730 Nigerian girls back home and I can still confirm to you that 13 minor girls are already in Nigeria this December 2023, they left Abidjan on 29th of December 2023. Records can be traced down to the immigration and NAPTIP. We also have records of what we have done so far in rescuing Nigerians from human trafficking in Cote d’Ivoire.”

Over the years, he said: “we have been making efforts to reach out to the Nigeria government, but due to elections in the country and activities of the new government to stabilise in office, we want to appeal to the new government to put adequate measures in place to check these issues cutting short the future of our young girls.

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“We are looking forward to this new government to help us look into these critical issues. Nigerian minors are in slavery. As a leader of the Nigerian community in Cote d’Ivoire, we are ready to work with the Nigerian government and security personnel to help in curbing this issue from Nigeria. We would appreciate a meeting with the Nigerian government to help with some facts and details of how these things are being done and the security measures to put in place.”

The Nigerian community president believes AFCON 2023 would be a better opportunity for the Nigerian government to visit the prison to rescue many young Nigerians wasting away in the Fench speaking country.

“In the spirit of sportsmanship, we believe this new government can put a stop to human trafficking and that is why we are waiting for the right time to come out and speak to the right channels whereby the right authorities will act on our details.”

“AFCON is a good opportunity for our government to meet the host authority and rescue some of our citizens who are not criminals but dying in prison. Nigerian minors are endangered by trafficking by some set of individuals, killing the future of our girls with their selfish interests.”

Onwuchelu warns Nigerians to be more security conscious and be guided against nationals who advertise jobs with bogus pay online.

“Nigerians need to be more careful about hyper-pay job advertisements. There is nothing like hyper pay jobs in Ivory Coast, and Nigerians should not be deceived by a group of internet fraudsters called Qnet jobs.

“These set of people bring in Nigerian boys and girls to Cote d’Ivoire with the impression of hyper-pay jobs and lock them inside a room to extort their contacts and start enslaving them into criminal acts, and that is why you see many Nigerians in Cote D’voire prisons.” A lot of people, Onwuchelu said, have fallen into this trap and found themselves in jail after agreeing to the terms and conditions of these wicked job providers. They lure some minors into prostitution.”

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“I am using this opportunity to advise my fellow Nigerians coming for the AFCON 2023, Ivory Coast is a country where the rule of law works, and we the Nigerian community have been maintaining that principle and ideology and that is why we are living in peace and harmony.

“As you are coming here as a supporter of the Nigerian football team, please respect the law of the land because the government of President Alassane Ouattara will not want anything that will jeopardize the peace and tranquility that both indigene and non-indigene have been enjoying.”

The Nigerian community is accepted and recognized by the Côté d’Ivoire government.–