They went with high hopes but came back sober and deflated. The story of Nigerian returnees from Libya is one that may never be exhausted, as they literally sneaked away from the grip of the nosy media after arriving the Lagos airport recently. But for those bold enough to share their stories, it’s a ‘bouquet’ of torture, starvation, kidnap and illegal imprisonment. Gboyega Alaka here relays some of their stories of misadventure and regret, as told at the Synagogue church, Lagos, where they had gone to seek help.
ON June 18 (2016), major Nigerian newspapers front pages were awash with images of Nigerian returnees from Libya. The afternoon before, 167 Nigerians had arrived the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos unannounced. Even the returnees weren’t sure they would be back in the country that afternoon (so they confessed later), although they had consented to willingly returning, having been given that option by the United Nations, the International Organisation for migration and the Swiss government. They would also later confess that they had to embrace the option of coming back home because of the horrific experience and dehumanisation they had been going through in that country.
Somehow the press got a wind of their return, and it was well-publicised, though they hardly had the opportunity of interacting with the newsmen. Expectedly, their arrival generated mixed reactions amongst Nigerians. While some blamed them for going to Libya of all places and thought whatever may have made them opt to be deported served them right, others pitied them and blamed the ever receding economy of the country, insisting that they would not have ventured out, had things been well with them in their home country.
However, not many knew that they were not the first batch and that many more are still languishing in various Libyan prisons. About a month earlier, a batch which comprised of 170 Nigerians arrived the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos rather quietly. But for the decision of 39 of them to visit the Synagogue Church of All Nations to ‘seek further help,’ after they were given a meagre N6,500 to negotiate their way home by government officials, even this reporter may never have been aware of their arrival, nor would he have heard some of their horrific tales, including that of Fidelis Onalememe, who revealed that over 5,000 Nigerians are still languishing in the late Moammar Gadhafi enclave, majority of them in prison. Neither would he have heard the story of Godspower Chibuike, who spoke of how Nigerians were dropping dead by the day due to hunger.
It is important to at this point give credit to the church and its satellite television, Emmanuel TV, for making available the footages, without which some of the first-hand narratives of these returnees would never have been accessed.
Back to the front
Meanwhile, this reporter was ‘opportune’ to listen to some of the June 17 returnees, who opted to go to the Synagogue church to ‘seek further help’, after they were given N9,950 each by government officials at the Lagos Airport, to negotiate their way to their respective homes. 162 of them: 132 male, 27 female and school-age children; had come in aboard an Airbus A320, looking relieved, even as some looked visibly ill. 107 of them however opted to go the synagogue and a bus was chartered for them to that effect.
One of them, Anthony AKhuemokhan, who claimed to be from Edo State, said he was employed as a site assistant in a Lagos company before his hunger to go to Europe ensured that he was misled.
“Before I left Nigeria, I was working as a site assistant in a company in Lagos, before I was misinformed about the Europe route. On getting to Libya however, it was not what I expected. What I went through to even get to Libya can be likened to passing through hell. I got to Tripoli on February 12, 2016 and would you believe that I spent all my time there in prison? I was there for about three months before the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations (UN) intervened in our situation by helping us with feeding and clothing. They also said they wanted to help us get back to our country and asked if we were willing to return home. They explained to us that the reason we were being held in prison was because they didn’t want economic meltdown in Europe. Let me not lie to you, life over there was not easy. Even to get food to eat was not easy. We had to pray hard for help, which thankfully came.”
Continuing, Akhuemokhan said “We landed at the airport by 3.30 today and the federal government received us, cooked for us and gave us N9,950. But we decided to come to the Synagogue to seek further help.”
Another returnee, Nduka Ogbonna from Abia State claimed he was roughing life as a ‘businessman’ before taking the decision to go to Libya to seek better life. “I was working in Nigeria as a businessman, dealing in scrap. I also fixed tiles; but my condition became worse after I lost my mum and dad. My friend in Libya told me there is work in Libya and that if I came over, I would be able to work, earn good money and make ends meet. So I decided to take the risk to travel over. But the reality I met on ground was totally different, worse than ever. I couldn’t bear it, so I worked and worked and worked (hoping to raise some good money); but eventually I was stranded. I couldn’t continue on my journey (to Europe). Finally I was arrested and taken to jail. There, I saw other Nigerians languishing in the prison. The conditions were terrible and the suffering was unbearable.
“It was at this point that I told my mates that we needed to do something to get out of the place. To feed was extremely difficult until the United Nations came to lend their assistance in that aspect and by giving us clothes. In the course of their interactions with us, they wondered why we were ‘willing to kill ourselves just to make money.’ We continued praying until one day God answered our prayer and our ambassador in Libya came and interviewed us.”
Ogbonna expressed gratitude to God for arriving back in Nigeria safely and hoped people would be patient and get more enlightened before embarking on such trips in the future.
‘I sold our family land to travel’
By far, the most pathetic story would be that told by Michael Augustine, who said he hails from Okpela in Edo State. Michael spoke of how he practically pushed his family into selling its only land and ancestral heritage to finance his trip abroad. His hope was that once he was able to travel, things would be better and he would enter into a better life.
“I personally disturbed my family to help me raise the money” he began. “I told them I wanted to travel abroad to better my life, so they had to sell the only family land to finance my trip. They sold the land at N700,000 and I immediately travelled to Lagos with the money to tell my sister how much we had been able to raise. She asked how much I needed to complete the money and I told her N300,000 and she counted the money and handed it to me.
“The following day, as early as possible, I boarded a God is Good Motors bus to Abuja; from Abuja, I took a car that same night to Sokoto. I arrived Sokoto the following morning and boarded a car to Agadez in Niger Republic. On getting to Niger, the man ushering us told me that the last batch just left and that I had to wait till Monday morning. On Monday, I paid the CFA120,000 required and about 32 of us were packed in a Hilux vehicle. It was such a sight. Some of us sat on woods, while I sat on the fuel tank. We got to a point where a vehicle had been involved in an accident. The sight was so gory, with several people dead and others injured; that I began wondering inside me why people were selling everything they have back home and embarking on this trip, if these kind of things were always happening on the route.” Augustine said.
But that was only an omen of worse things to come. Thirty minutes later, Augustine said “We were driven into a gated compound, where suddenly people were jumping out from nowhere with big guns. They packed those of us who were Nigerians into a room; and I was scared and asked what was happening. They said we were in tranke, which in their parlance meant we had been kidnapped. They kept us for two weeks until their boss came. Then they called us out and started flogging us with iron poles and wires. They also tortured us by shocking us with electricity. The whole of my back was disfigured in the process. They insisted that we paid a ransom of N250,000 before they let us go. When I told them I had paid CFA120,000 and that I had no money with me, they insisted and I eventually had to call my sister in Nigeria. It was after she had transferred the money into their account that they eventually soft-pedaled.
“Three days later, they let me go and I took a car to Tripoli. As usual, we were cramped into three cars, about thirty of us. Later we saw that one of the cars had tumbled and people had sustained various degrees of injuries. Some had broken hands, some, broken legs; while some others were bleeding through their mouth and nose. We wanted to take them to a hospital, but were told there were no hospitals around; so they loaded all of us – over 30 of us, including the accident victims, into an 18-seater bus. All these took place between Saba and Tripoli.”
But the nightmare was not over. Augustine continued: “On our way, we were waylaid again with a big trailer. They threatened us and collected whatever money we had left, including our phones and other belongings, and then called the Police. The police rounded us up, took our names, and then transferred us to prison, where we met some fellow Nigerians.”
Augustine also revealed that they were transferred from one jail house to the other, until they were finally deported.
More sad stories
But more sad stories were to follow. One of them was that of Bamibo Babatunde, who travelled as an able-bodied man but came back literally crippled – except of course if a miracle happens.
Babatunde, a married man with two kids, said he travelled to Libya on November 11, 2015 at the instance of his wife, who had travelled ahead of him to the same country.
He said, “My wife had left ahead of me on October 2nd. When she got there, she beckoned on me to come over and that if I could make it, I would be able to make good money. But I didn’t have much money, so I sold my car and other belongings to raise the money. When I got to Libya, I rested for two days and went out with one of my neighbours to work. On our way, we saw some people; I didn’t initially know who they were, until our driver and neighbour started saying they were kidnappers. In the course of maneuvering our car to escape, our car ran into another car and I sustained a broken leg. I went to a hospital, where I was treated and the leg put in a POP. Later, I had an x-ray and it was discovered that the bone in the leg were not joined and that I needed an operation to fix it. They said I would need 6200 dinars, about N744,000. I didn’t have that kind of money nor anyone who could give it to me. I was advised to reach out to my family back in Nigeria, but they also didn’t have the money and therefore advised me to come back home. Even the church in Tripoli advised me to go back home. So that is why I took the decision to come back to Nigeria, when the opportunity presented itself.”
107 of them were presented with cash gift of N50, 000 each, totaling N5,350,000 and a bag of rice each to help them get back on their feet and start new life.
The May 11 batch
39 of the May 11 batch berthed at the Synagogue church. As stated earlier, their hope was to access more help, as they confessed that the N6500 given to them was not enough to even take them to their various destinations. They filed out all sporting a Ronaldo sportsuit. They were in various states of health conditions, ranging from the very strong, to the not so strong, to the weak and the very weak. They all however had one thing in common. They were sober, and probably wished they hadn’t made that trip.
‘You’d shed tears for Nigeria’
One of them, Fidelis Onolememe said they weren’t arrested as a group and that their destinies got connected when they all met in the prisons. He said they were put in two prisons and that the UN officials came to visit them during one of their routine inspections and immediately took pity on their condition.
He said “If you go to Libya, you will shed tears for Nigerians. We have no less than 5,000 Nigerians in that country as we speak languishing in suffering and pain. Everything in that country has collapsed; no government, no law and everybody is doing what they like. Even our girls, if you see what they are doing to survive, you will pity this country. Most of us left this country because of our circumstances, which we thought were not too good. We thought things would be different there and that we would earn good living, but that was not to be. The same problem that chased us from Nigeria was what we met there. Even worse.” He said.
He explained that most of them engaged in menial jobs, such as bricklaying, welding, car-wash and co.
Worse, Onalememe said “You didn’t have to have done anything for them to arrest you and take you to prison. I spent nothing less than seven months in the prison; some have spent a year, some five months and so on.”
Narrating how they came to be deported, he said: “At a point, a group of people came to the prison from the UN; they saw our conditions, pitied us and promised to come back. After about three weeks, I think on December 30, they came back and interviewed us, took our pictures and wrote our names down. They asked if we would like to be deported, to which we said yes, because the condition under which we were living was horrible. On Wednesday last week, they came back with our Travel Certificate (TC) and promised to come back the following day. True to their words, they came back the following day, brought buses and here we are.”
He revealed that many of them actually took the decision to come to the synagogue, but said only the 39 present could make it.
On the uniform sportsuit, Onalememe said the UN brought the dress to them the day before they travelled. But for the wears, he said they would have arrived Nigeria in rags, adding that “Once they catch you, there’s no going back to your abode to pack a few things.”
‘Nigerians were dropping dead’
The memory that would by far linger most in Godspower Chibuike’s memory would be that of extreme starvation and fellow Nigerians dropping dead out of hunger.
Chibuike, who says he hails from Imo State but resided in Benin, Edo State before he travelled, said: “In prison, they beat us and starve us. They give us cake as little as those sold at N20 apiece in the Nigerian market for breakfast. Sometimes people even fainted because of hunger. Before my very eyes, somebody collapsed and died, and before we knew it, he was covered with a blanket and taken away. Let me tell you, we faced challenges. Painfully, a lot of Nigerians are still languishing in prison in that country, while their parents and family members in Nigeria are thinking they are doing well abroad.”
He gave thanks to God for paving the way for him to come back home safely, and especially appreciated the efforts of the United Nations, and the IOM for staying true to their words and keeping their promise.
At the end of the proceeding, each of the 39 returnees, who visited the church were presented with a cash gift of N100,000 each, totaling N3.9 million by Prophet T B Joshua. They were also given a bag of rice each and a copy each of the book, The Mirror, written by Prophet Joshua.
The returnees expressed gratitude to the prophet for his generosity and said the money would help them get back on their feet. With such huge sum, they confessed that he has been able to banish all negative thoughts of earning a living through crime and other negative means from their mind.
