January 19, 2018

The Ondo State Government, on Friday, in Akure, received 23 indigenes of the state, who were among Nigerian returnees from Libya.

Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of the state, who received the returnees, assured them that government would provide adequate support and means of reintegrating them back to the society.

Akeredolu, who was represented by his deputy, Mr Agboola Ajayi, thanked the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri for bringing back thousands of Nigerians from Libya.

Akeredolu said the State Government was already doing all that was necessary, as all the returnees were already going through debriefing.

“We are going to take care of them; government will set them up in the skills, which the returnees will be willing to do.

“I interviewed them on what they were doing there, so that we can do better for them in the state,” he said.

Akeredolu advised citizens to stop listening to lies from travel agents promising heaven and earth for them abroad.

He noted that government could not force movement of its citizens in and out of the country, but charged them as adults to find something doing in the country.

The governor, however, promised that his government would embark on the sensitisation of its citizens on dangers of going to Libya.

“My advice for everyone is that people should learn from the bitter experience of these returnees, what they are looking for in Libya or Europe is right here in their father’s land,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the returnees were made up of 12 females, 10 males and a child.

A woman, who was among the returnees, said she was lured by a Nigerian lady in the country to engage in a cleaning after the death of her husband.

She explained that she travelled to Libya in April 2017 after his husband, a policeman, simply identified as Jimoh, was killed during a special duty by armed robbers.

The woman, who was four months pregnant, when her husband was killed, said she decided to travel to Libya when there was no means to sustain herself and her children.

“On arriving Libya, we were sold to ‘Arabu’ (a non indigene) on the promise to pay certain amount of money to us.

“My children were left in Nigeria as they have stopped going to school,” she added.

She said she escaped from ‘Arabu’ to engage in self work since the ‘Arabu’ did not pay their salaries, but even the money made from self work could not be sent home.

Another returnee told the governor that she was only able to communicate three days ago just hours after the bus conveying them arrived Port Harcourt.

She said she was eight months pregnant and lost contact with her husband when their camp was bombed.

The returnee revealed that any woman, who was not married or pregnant would easily become a victim of rape in Libya.