•Recounts her many ordeals in Libya
Aisha is a 31-year-old Nigerian lady who made it back alive after traveling to Libya in search of a greener pasture.
The mother of one who hails from Ikirun in Osun state revealed what she went through during the journey in an interview with Legit.ng.
The 31-year-old lady thought life was difficult until she experienced true hardship on her way to Libya.
Due to a lack of funding, she had to drop out of University of Ilorin in her second year where she was studying English Language. All efforts to plead with the school’s management in order to write the exams and pay afterwards proved abortive. Hence, she had to go back home.
Legit.ng got to know that it was while she was out of school and feeling frustrated with the situation of things that she met a man who suggested travelling abroad to her. She then explained that she did not have the funds to travel as she had to leave school as a result of that as well. The man introduced her to one Mr Jubril in Lagos who then told her how things will work.
According to him, she would not pay a dime until she reaches Libya. The cost of moving her to Libya, however, would cost three hundred thousand and she would pay it as soon as she got there. Her salary according to Jubril was to be a hundred thousand naira monthly as there was a job waiting for her. The mother of one felt it was a good offer and spoke with her parents who agreed reluctantly. Her journey to Libya by road started with forty-six others even though only nineteen made it to the country. She had to wash about forty eight toilets in a day.
Aisha talked about how they moved from one place to the other; they were tightly packed in the vehicle that conveyed them. Many of them died before they could reach their destination. Their bodies were thrown away on the road as they had to keep moving. She told Legit.ng that they did not know some of the people in the vehicle had died as they remained still and looked like they were sleeping. It was until they were nudged that they discovered there was no life in them again. She said that at some point in the desert, their water finished and they were equally out of food.
Aisha still has interest in going back to school. It was then that she resorted to feeding on her menstrual blood. Aisha, who is a devoted Christian, said that her period had never been so heavy before; the blood gushed out heavily while she was in the desert and she drank it in order to stay alive. The other ladies who were on the same journey with her did the same in order not to die of thirst. She said that she was relieved when they finally made it to Libya.
Stepping into Libya was another phase of hardship as life there was not what she expected. She met Jubril, the man she had been talking to before leaving Nigeria and was disappointed when he told her the job awaiting her was prostitution. They had a heated argument where she stood her grounds and he beat her thoroughly. He insisted she wanted to play smart in order not to pay him.
She revealed that he locked her in a room without food or water for days before he came back for her. She was naked when he returned and he saw a scar on her stomach.
Aisha said she explained to him that she had the scar via caesarian section and does not have the strength to sleep with men. He then offered to help her by making her sleep with only one man as against different men. She agreed to this but things never got to that as a woman called Fatimah saw her while she was still there and bought her off him.
Fatimah was said to be a Nigerian like Jubril; both of them are in the same line of business. She paid one million five hundred thousand to get her from Jubril and told the naïve lady that she paid two million instead. She then told her that she would pay her two hundred thousand naira extra for her act of kindness.
The new boss gave her the option of being a house cleaner or taking care of old people. She eventually settled down with the former. Aisha told Legit.ng that she was taken to a twelve-storey building where she had to clean about forty-eight toilets daily.
After a few days of doing this, she got sick and her boss, an Arabian, empathized with her. She told him her story and he offered to help her pay off one million naira. He put a call through to Fatimah who was angry she told the Arabian their deal. She took her out of the man’s house and had her thoroughly beaten. She was taken to two other places where she suffered greatly. She considers herself lucky to have survived the ordeal.
Towards the end of her stay in Libya, she said she landed in prison for no reason. When she got out, she met a Ghanaian who offered to let her use his phone to call her parents. Her father reported the case and she found her way to the Nigerian embassy. She was there for a week before she was returned home on a plane along with other Nigerians.
•Source: Legit.ng
