A teenager in northern Nigeria stopped an alleged trafficker from transporting her and five other girls to work as prostitutes by shouting to alert authorities, police said Thursday.
Police in the town of Illela intercepted two suspected human traffickers as they were trying to cross the border into Niger with the six teenage girls, a police spokesman said.
One of the girls, who were between 16 and 19 years old, began to yell from the vehicle that they were being taken against their will, attracting the attention of police, Sokoto state police spokesman Lawal Abdullahi said.
“We have two suspects, a woman and her driver, in our custody and the investigation is in progress,” Abdullahi said.
According to the police spokesman, the main suspect recruited the girls from central Plateau state in Nigeria by promising them jobs, but did not tell the girls where she was taking them.
“One of the girls panicked and raised the alarm when she realised they were being taken out of the country,” Abdullahi said.
The suspected trafficker, Helen Obi, a 40-year-old from Nigeria, told police she was taking the girls to Agadez in northern Niger, where she runs a hair salon, to work there, Abdullahi said.
Trafficking of young women from Nigeria to Europe via Niger and Libya for prostitution is commonplace. The girls are usually lured with the promise of lucrative jobs, only to be forced into prostitution once in Europe.