Our attention has been drawn to a malicious story published in the Sunday, January 8, 2017 edition of your newspaper titled “Ifelodun Human Traffickers’ New Fishing Pond”. Our community, Iviukwe was mentioned in that publication as a haven of human trafficking. We want to categorically state that everything stated in that publication referring to Iviukwe is false and intended to malign our community.
We are requesting you to retract the story as it is a mere falsehood fabricated to portray our community in bad light. We are a law abiding community and are aware the criminal nature of human trafficking. It is outright unethical for your reporters to write such a story about a community without thorough investigation. We don’t have such person as Aigberamah, which was mentioned in the publication, in our community and non-of our sons and daughters have been trafficked out of the community and there are no traffickers in the community.
We are not happy about the publication at all and are ready to provide opportunity for your reporters to interview members of the community in a follow-up story to correct the false impression which your publication has created in the minds of the general public.
We trust that you will take necessary steps to do a second publication on this story and give it the kind of prominence accorded to the earlier malicious and fabricated one published on the January 8, 2017.
We are prepared to take further steps to clear our name so maligned by your publication should you fail to treat this case with the urgency and sincerity it requires.
No less than two-thirds of trafficked victims are women and girls while one-third of the victims of human trafficking are children, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said on Wednesday.
UNODC Executive Director, Yury Fedotov, disclosed this on Wednesday at the launch of the 2016 UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons.
According to a new report from the UNODC, the vast majority of all human trafficking victims – some 71 per cent – are women, girls and children.
“Trafficking for sexual exploitation and for forced labour remain the most prominently detected forms.
“But victims are also being trafficked to be used as beggars, for forced or sham marriages, benefit fraud, or production of pornography,” Fedotov said.
According to him, the 2016 UNODC Global Report disaggregates data on the basis of gender and found that women and girls are usually trafficked for marriage and sexual slavery.
“Men and boys, however, are trafficked into exploitative labour, including work in the mining sector, as porters, soldiers, and slaves.
“Worldwide, 28 per cent of trafficking victims are children, but children account for 62 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa and 64 per cent in Central America and the Caribbean.
“Sixty nine countries detected trafficking victims from Sub-Saharan Africa between 2012 and 2014.”
Fedotov emphasised the link between armed groups and human trafficking.
He noted how armed groups often engaged in trafficking in their territories of operation, coercing women and girls into marriages or sexual slavery.
According to him, armed groups also pressed men and boys to act as forced labour or combatants. (NAN)
After a successful debut publication of her anti-human trafficking anthology tilted: ‘I am not to be sold”, the Media Initiative Against Human trafficking and Women Rights Abuse (MIAHWRA), has opened entries for the 2017 publication.
Founder of MIAHWRA, Ms. Tobore Ovuorie, said: “Unlike last year, where anti-human trafficking poems were written by secondary school pupils, this year’s edition will be on short stories.”
After her last year’s campaign at Lagos State secondary schools, where pupils won gifts and scholarships for their brilliant performance, MIAHWRA, with Parresia Publishers Ltd, published some of the best poems written by participants aged between eight and 14.
Ms Ovuorie said: “We are helping children find their voice and take their stand against human trafficking. The earlier they know about the A-Z of this evil trade dressed in different forms, the better for us all. To get published in next year’s edition, any child who is in secondary school should simply write a short story with the theme: ‘I am not to be sold.’ The entries should be within 1000 and 1500 words”.
She, however, noted that entries are open to only secondary school pupils in Nigeria, adding that all entries must be their original work, among other criteria.
Besides becoming published authors, she said the overall winner would win cash prizes, certificate, plaque, get their story published in the collection and become the MIAHWRA Human trafficking ambassador who leads the book reading/tour sessions next year.
She called for entries to be sent to miahwra@gmail.com, while other information can be sought at info@miahwra.org. Entries close on Monday November 30, this year.
Officials of the Delta State government have been accused of violating the state’s Child Right Law and involvement in alleged human trafficking.
A child rights activist, Ighorhiohwumu Aghogho, who made the allegation at a news conference in Warri on Wednesday, also gave a 15-day ultimatum to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking-in-Persons (NAPTIP) to compel the Delta State Ministry of Women Affairs, Community and Social Development to stop alleged trafficking of children.
Aghogho, who is also the proprietor of the Explosive Academy, an independent school for children beyond parental control, based in Abraka, Ethiope East council area, alleged that the Ministry of Women Affairs had been engaged in unlawful admittance of children into orphanages failing to follow the due process.
Aghogho alleged that about 27 orphanage homes are unlawfully operating in the state.
He said: “We are giving the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking-in Persons (NAPTIP) Abuja, fifteen days ultimatum after which we will apply to court for an order of mandamus to compel NAPTIP to search for and produce the Adoption Children Register of Delta State and to stop the Delta State Ministry of Women Affairs, Community and Social Development, Asaba, from further trafficking of Delta state children.”
When contacted the Commissioner for Women of Women Affairs Community and Social Developlemnt, Mrs Omatsola Williams, said she was about boarding a flight, but advised our correspondent to reach out to the Commissioner for Information or the Public Relation Officer of her ministry.
Commissioner for Information Patrick Ukah, who was contacted on his mobile phone, asked our correspondent after explaining the reason for the call, to put everything in a text message to enable him investigate and react.
The Director of Child Development, Ministry of Women Affairs, Community and Social Development, Mr. Fred Ogheni, dismissed the allegation.
The Zonal Commandant, NANTIP Benin City, Ifechukwude Odita, said his agency was playing its part towards investigating the allegation.
“ We are doing our best. As I speak with you our report is ready for submission to my boss,” he said.
THE Delta Police Command has arrested a syndicate which specialises in child kidnapping and trafficking in persons.
The alleged leader of the gang, Chinedu Strongson, is a popular tele-evangelist based in Anambra State.
Pastor Strongson, 48, the founder of Gospel Fire Army, Nwkele-Ogidi, Anambra State, was arrested alongside four others.
As ringleader, Pastor Strongson allegedly pays N400, 000 for each child sold to him, the police said.
The state’s Police Commissioner, Zanna Ibrahim, who briefed reporters in Asaba, the state capital, said that two members of the syndicate were apprehended following a complaint by one Aisha Yahaya of Umuezei Quarters about a kidnapped one-month-old baby girl.
Ibrahim said that the two suspects, Chidinma Anikwesiri, 20, and Nnoruka Obioma, 21, were arrested while attempting to escape. Said the police boss: “One Aisha Yahaya ‘f’ of Umuezei Quarters, Asaba, reported at the ‘B’ Division that two ladies identified as Nnoruka Obioma and Chidinma Anikwesiri introduced themselves as members of State Anti-Robbery Squad(SARS) and told her that her husband sent them from Ogwashi-Uku prison.
“The complainant further disclosed that she followed them to a junction where they met Abigail Nwakama aka Madam Cash who gave her N3, 500.00 to alleviate her poverty and asked her to buy clothes for her baby Fatima Yahaya aged one year and one month. In the process, the said baby was stolen by the syndicate.”
He added that the baby was recovered from Onyinye Nwakama, the 11-year-old daughter of Abigail Nwakama, at a drinking bar in Asaba. Abigail Nwakama aka Madam Cash and another suspect were arrested at Okpanam, Oshimili North Local Government Area.
He said that the suspects led detectives to Nkwele Ogidi where 12 children were recovered from Pastor Strongson. Two of the recovered children have been handed over to their parents while the remaining ten children within the age brackets of six months to two years are being kept at an orphanage.
Strongson denied heading a child kidnapping and trafficking syndicate. He said: “I help people. So people bring people for me to help. I announce it on Odenigbo programme on 99.4 FM station that I am willing to help anyone pay school fees. There is an allegation that I am involved in child trafficking. I give people money generally.
“Nobody brought any person; the police only recovered two children who were brought for help. People bring children for me to help to pay their school fees. People come to me for spiritual help.”
On the source of the enormous wealth with which he helps people, Strongson explained that he runs five businesses ranging from land prospecting to restaurateur and football proprietor.
Criminals are exploiting the migration crisis to dramatically increase the trafficking of Nigerian women and girls into Europe – and many could end up being exploited in the UK, the independent anti-slavery commissioner has warned.
Kevin Hyland said Britain has a responsibility to act and called for an immediate response to the crisis before it worsens.
There are up to 13,000 victims of modern ‘slavery’ in the UK, according to government estimates with Nigeria cited as consistently been one of the top countries of origin among victims identified, Mr Hyland said.
Separate figures indicate that 5,633 Nigerian women and girls reached Italy by sea last year – nearly four times the level recorded in 2014. Estimates suggest that close to four in five are trafficking victims who criminals plan to force into the sex industry across Europe.
Mr Hyland said:” Simply put, this is now one of world’s major human trafficking crises. It has been going on for a number of years, and a failure to act has allowed the criminals to take advantage of the current migration crisis.
“The rise in the numbers is staggering. Nigerian women and girls are enslaved and sexually exploited here in the UK. We must act now.”
Last month, Prime Minister Theresa May announced a new £33 million International Modern Slavery Fund. Mr Hyland argued preventing trafficking from Nigeria at source must be one its core focuses.
Describing Edo State as Nigeria’s ”trafficking hub”, the former Metropolitan Police detective said: “Unless we bring focus to this region, criminals will simply continue to move huge numbers of women and young girls into Europe to be exploited and profited from, as if they were a mere commodity.”
Gangs are feared to be targeting women and girls and deceiving them with promises of a life of opportunity in Europe.
Mr Hyland added: “These vulnerable people, many of whom are young girls, have no understanding of the conditions under which they will ‘work’, the violence and threats they will receive, the size of the debt they will incur and the brutal exploitation they will suffer.”
Criminals are exploiting the migration crisis to dramatically increase the trafficking of Nigerian women and girls into Europe – and many could end up being exploited in the United Kingdom, the independent anti-slavery commissioner has warned.
Kevin Hyland said Britain has a responsibility to act and called for an immediate response to the crisis before it worsens.
There are up to 13,000 victims of modern “slavery” in the UK, according to Government estimates with Nigeria consistently listed as one of the top countries of origin among victims identified, Mr. Hyland said.
Separate figures revealed that 5,633 Nigerian women and girls reached Italy by sea last year – nearly four times the level recorded in 2014.
Estimates suggested that close to four out of five people are trafficking victims who criminals planned to force into the sex industry across Europe.
He said: “Simply put, this is now one of world’s major human trafficking crises. It has been going on for a number of years, and a failure to act has allowed the criminals to take advantage of the current migration crisis.
“The rise in the numbers is staggering. Nigerian women and girls are enslaved and sexually exploited here in the UK. We must act now.”
Two men, who attempted to obtain United Kingdom (UK) visas from the British Consulate in Lagos, were Thursday remanded in prison custody on human trafficking charges by a Lagos State Magistrates’ Court in Igbosere.
Sunday Ugberase, 27, and Gbolagade Jimoh, 54, whose addresses were not given, are standing trial before Mrs O. A. Ogunbowale on a two-count charge of conspiracy and human trafficking.
Prosecuting Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sunday Ekong told the court that the defendants committed the alleged offences on March 14, at the British High Commission in Lagos.
“The men and others at large approached the British Consulate for a United Kingdom Visa to transfer one Sunday Ugberase and others to the UK with intent to trade in them for their personal gain,” he alleged.
Ekong said that the alleged offences contravened Sections 274 (10) and 409 of the Criminal Law Lagos State, 2011.
Both men denied the charges.
The Magistrate adjourned the case till April 12 for hearing of their bail application.
As an auxiliary nurse, Yusuf Omobolanle Hasfat, 32, had high hopes when she was introduced to one Alhaja Lateefat Sanni, who “takes people to America”.
The young daughter of a National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) executive in Ojota, was filled with dreams of a good job and a better life once she arrives America, such that she even parted with N1, 000,000 which was handed over to Alhaji Muritala Sanni, her ‘benefactor’s’ husband in the presence of Mrs. Sanni’s mother, Ebunoluwa Bankole.
Mrs. Ebunoluwa Bankole
But her dream was never to be as soon after paying the money, the reality of her flying to America became a horrid, brutish road trip which commenced on December 28, last year from Lagos through Kano and across the deserts terminating at Alhaja Sanni’s house in Tripoli, Libya after 11 days.
While some of the girls aged between 12 and 15 years were passed off as colanuts to soldiers and other security agents on the road, others were flogged or had their money seized, and the weaker girls who could not survive the jungle, fell off the truck in which they were lumped dying like chickens.
The victim who was rescued and returned to Nigeria on January 23, alongside one Basirat Lamidi and have since been under protective custody, on Wednesday relived her ordeal.
Hasfat and Lamidi, according to their lawyer, Ojay Akinwale who’s President, Alliance of Rights Defenders (ARD) the right group incharge of the case were not exposed to the media until this week because their traffickers were still on the loose.
Rescued victims Hasfat and Lamidi
At the lawyer’s office in Anthony, Hasfat said they were given garri, groundnut, five litres of water, powdered milk, milo and a blanket and jacket at Agadashe in Libya, with about 20 girls paired in a room to sleep, narrating how Cucumber was used to deflower teenaged girls who are sent to a brothel in a place called New York.
“The experience was horrible. At a point I begged to return to Nigeria but they told me that there was no going back. I did not know that we will be forced into prostitution. Infact initially I was told that I will be taken to America.
“I even paid one million Naira in two instalments. The first time I paid N500,000 to Alhaji Sanni infront of his wife and his wife’s mother, Mrs. Ebunoluwa.
“I met his wife through a relative who told me that she used to help people go to America. Alhaja Sanni told me that she has brother’s in America who will ensure I got a job.
“Alhaja later collected another N500,000 from me which she said was for hotel accommodation and other expenses. It was I and a 19-year-old girl that she had the meeting with at National Theatre in Lagos.
The couple, Alhaji Muritala Sanni and Alhaja lateefat Sanni
“After paying her the money, she said plans have changed and we are no longer going by air. She boarded us into a bus from Lagos to Kano from there we moved into a truck on the journey through the desert. There were about 25 to 40 people in the truck and we embarked on the journey on December 28.
“Some people were falling off the truck and dying on the way. We moved from Kano to Niger and from Niger to Agadesh. At each point, they handed us over to different cartel who will traffick us from one point to the other. They called the traffickers bulger.
“When we got to Niger, the soldiers there brought all the ladies down and they flogged us with whip.
They also raped some of the girls and stole money from us. They flogged me too but I was not raped because I had money to give them.
“I was fasting and praying all through the journey for God to save our lives. At a point, I begged to return to Nigeria but the cartel said there is no going back.
“When we got to Agadashe in Libya, she gave us garri, groundnut, five litres of water, powdered milk, milo, a blanket and jacket. We slept in the room about 20 of us. It took us 11 days to travel by road and the experience was horrible and deadly.
“We saw girls between 12 and 15 years old in the rooms. They were up to 100 of them in Alhaja Muritala’s house in Tripoli. We were not allowed to make calls as they seized our phones. I started troubling Mrs Lateefat Sanni that she should take me to America as she promised but she said I have to stay in Libya for sometime and work for her as a prostitute.
“She told me that since I refused to work as a prostitute, I should do my work to help abort pregnancy for the girls but I refused. Alhaji Sanni told me that if I want to return to Nigeria, I should call somebody to give him N3million for my release.
“I had to find a way to reach my family and I called for help. The human rights people came to my rescue and two of us were rescued to Nigeria but Alhaja Muritala and his wife had planned for us to be killed on the way.
“I saw girls dying they use cucumber to disvirgin girls between 13 and 15 years old in the brothel. The girls are made to sleep with men for N10dina (N1000) for a round of sex, 50 dina for over night. A girl called Dorcas and another girl called Joy died in my presence.
“Alhaji got a flight for us to return to Nigeria after pressure from the human rights group became unbearable for him and his wife but the plane stopped in Ghana. Mrs Lateefat gave us white and green dresses to wear. We thought she wanted us to wear good clothes but unknown to us, she used the clothes to mark us and as we boarded the bus from Ghana to Nigeria, we didn’t know she had hired assassin to kill us but we were rescued by the human rights group and brought to Nigeria on January 23,” she explained.
Corroborating the victim’s story, an Anglican Church Pastor in Tripoli, Ayobami Ayorinde, who was contacted through telephone said he has been sending some of the affected girls back home since 2012, such that he has exhausted his money.
He accused the Nigerian mission in Libya of neglecting the girls, explaining that he has even tried to get decent jibs for some of the victims.
“The problem is that many desperate people want to leave Nigeria to seek greener pastures abroad. Most of these Nigerians are from single parent home and they feel coming to Europe will solve their problems. They have cartels that prey on these vulnerable Nigerians and traffick them to Libya to work as prostitutes.
“I have been sending these girls back home since 2012. I have exhausted the cash on me and I don’t have money to send them back home.
The Nigeria Embassy in Libya is not helping these girls to return home. They turn their back on them. I am trying to help some of them get job so they can save money and return home,” he explained.
How NGO intervened
According to the lawyer, the group received a petition from the victims’ families in Lagos and Ogun State indicating that their children have been trafficked to Libya and forced into prostitution by a cartel headed by the Libya based couple who are indigenes of Odeda village in Ogun state.
He stated that the petitioners fingered Mrs. Ebunoluwa Bankole, a grandmother as a conspirator indicating that she was the only who lures young girls into the evil trade to please her daughter and son-in-law.
As a result of the petition, Akinwale said the NGO sponsored a private investigator, Prince Tunji Oshokoya to Libya, who uncovered the activities of the cartel, as well as facilitated the rescue of the two girls.
“We got a complaint from the families of one Yusuf Hafsat Omobolanle and one Basirat Lamidi that their daughters were illegally trafficked to Libya by one Mrs Ebunoluwa Bankole, Alhaji Muritala Sanni and his wife Alhaja Lateefat Sanni. We employed a private investigator, a former crime reporter one Prince Tunji Oshokoya to use his experience to track down this cartel.
“Following his investigation, we found out that the two ladies were trafficked illegally with fake passports to Libya by road through the desert by one Alhaji Muritala Sanni and his wife Alhaja Lateefat Sanni, indigenes of Odeda village in Ogun state to Libya to work as prostitutes.
“We learnt that the cartel collected between N500,000 to N1.5 million to traffick girls by road through the desert to Libya after procuring fake passports for them and forcing them to take oath of allegiance after which the girls’ passports are seized and they are made to go through horrific experiences as prostitutes in Libya.
“Mrs Ebunoluwa Bankole, the mother of Alhaja Lateefat Bankole helps to lure parents and guardians to allow thier daughters to go to Libya. She would tell them that the daughters will earn good money doing jobs like hair dressing and tailoring. She also helps her daughter to take the girls to the shrine were they are made to go through ritual process of allegiance to the couple.
“She follows her daughter and son-in-law to Lagos to collect money from the innocent girls and thier parents that she will help them travel to America with the connection of her daughter,” he said.
Continuing the lawyer said the group reported the case to National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, which led to the arrest of the grandmother.
He however expressed reservations on the manner the agency was handling the case, wondering why they wanted to take the woman to Ogun state for prosecution.
He explained that photographs of the cartel members were handed over to NAPTIP, just as the NGO lured her daughter to Nigeria to be nabbed but she escaped.
He said: “Through our investigation, we got the photographs of Alhaji Muritala and Alhaja lateefat to NAPTIP but sadly when they went to Abeokuta to arrest Alhaja Lateefat, her sister came out of the house and started shouting “thieves! thieves!”
“That was her the community members came out and attacked the NAPTIP officials with broken bottles and other dangerous weapon. The community members overpowered the NAPTIP officers and the policemen that came for the arrest and they whisked Alhaja Lateefat away. That was how she escaped and she is back in Libya.
“However, the NAPTIP officers arrested her mother, Mrs. Bankole three days later and she is in the custody of the NAPTIP. What we are hearing from NAPTIP is that they want to take her back to Abeokuta to prosecute her but to me that is not right because the girls were trafficked from Lagos not from Abeokuta.
“The crime was committed in Lagos so NAPTIP should not play any funny games. We are concerned and decided to get the media involved because NAPTIP has not been forthcoming with information to us. They do not carry us along and it is as if they want to bury the case. We also heard that the community members that attacked the NAPTIP officers, who were later arrested and were being taken to Lagos, were aided to escape while about five of them that they brought to Lagos have since been granted bail.
“To us this is not right because they obstructed official duty by attacking the operatives.
Oshokoya who carried out the investigation stated that the couple are known as Baba Tawa and Mama Tawa in Tripoli, adding that they are very influential in that country.
“This couple are highly connected in Libya and in Abeokuta. We lured Mrs. Sanni to Nigeria and she was apprehended by the police but one police officer known as Yusuf Bola of Ogun state command granted her bail after she gave him N500,000.
“She promised to give me N2 million as bribe to back down from the case but I refused and insisted that the two ladies be returned to Nigeria. She agreed to release them to us after signing an agreement but the cartel wanted to kill the ladies before they got to Nigeria.
“We intercepted the ladies at Seme border with the help of the police and rescued them to Nigeria. From our investigation, the couple Alhaji Muritala and his wife run brothels in Libya where over 500 girls are kept for prostitution.
“These girls live in underground rooms with about twenty of them in a room. One girl can be made to sleep with 10 to 15 men in a day. This cartel made these girls to swear to a false oath of secrecy, they seized their phones such that they cannot communicate with their families.
“The girls live in a tiny room and are fed with oil and flour once a day. We have video recordings of this hell of a brothel they run and we handed the information to NAPTIP. Some of the girls have died from infections like HIV/AIDs, others are raped in what is called baptism of the virgin or rape spree which is done by Muritala Sanni and other Libyan men. It’s the height of man’s inhumanity to man and a modern day slavery which should not be allowed to thrive,” said Oshokoya.
Other victims cry for help
Although Hafsat and Lamidi have returned safely in Nigeria, it was learnt that hundreds of girls including one Ebunoluwa Lawal, 26, are crying for help.
Lawal who is known as Smally in Libya was allegedly trafficked in 2012 by Mrs. Sanni’s sister identified as Aunty Bola and another Sir K.
Lawal who now lives with Pastor Ayorinde told reporters on telephone that she was deceived that she will be taken to Spain where she can continue her fashion designing work.
She said: “They call me Smally in Libya. It was Mrs. Lateefat Sanni’s sister one Aunty Bola and one Sir K that trafficked me through the desert to Libya in 2012. I was a fashion designer in Abeokuta when I was lured to Libya.
“They told us that they are taking us to Spain to continue my handwork. We were forty in number. I did not pay them any money for the trip. My parents do not know about the journey. We were kept in a room in Libya and forced into prostitution but I ran away and have been hiding since then.
“I want to come back to Nigeria but there is no money. I went to Nigeria Embassy but they turned me and other girls back. I am trying to work so I can save money and return to Nigeria but it’s not easy. I heard they are looking for me to kill me but a pastor is helping young girls to escape. We were about 10 to 15 in a room. They collect all the money we make and seized our passports”.
Justice for the victims?
Akinwale who said he was pained over the plight of the victims urged the federal government to as a matter if emergency, end the trade.
He also called for the prosecution of the culprits and all those who attacked state officials who went to Abeokuta to arrest Mrs. Sanni.
According to him, the community members should be tried for obstructing the process of justice, just as the couple should be repatriated and prosecuted.
He also noted the unholy role of some policemen in Abeokuta who allegedly aided the woman to escape, wondering why such a couple should be given chieftaincy titles.
“This couple have chieftaincy titles in their village and they eat and dine with the Ambassador of Nigeria to Libya. It is sad indeed that Nigerian government is not caring for her citizens and they are being trafficked and made to live as slaves.
“Government should see human trafficking worst than drug trafficking. We call on the government to arrest those behind these human trafficking rings. They should be prosecuted and the over 100 trafficked girls should be returned to their families.
“The Nigeria Embassy in Libya should wake up and protect Nigerians in that country. From what we gathered, Alhaja Sanni is back in Libya and has employed some OPC members to help keep watch over the other girls so they do not escape. This woman and her husband with others should be arrested by Interpol and brought back to Nigeria to face the wrath of the law. Our government should not treat this matter with kid gloves.”
NAPTIP keeps mum
The Zonal Commander of NAPTIP, Joseph Famakin when contacted said he was not on seat and cannot say which exact story was being referred to.
“I can’t answer your question because my head is not a computer to know which person is being investigated as we have over 98 cases on our hands. It is not possible for me to answer your question.”
Similarly, the Zonal spokesperson for NAPTIP, Hajara said she could not comment on the issue.
A 28-year-old man, Ishyaku Abdullahi, was yesterday remanded at Ikoyi Prisons after pleading guilty to drug trafficking.
A Federal High Court said the accused should be kept behind bars pending review of facts and sentence.
The accused, a goat seller, was arraigned by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for drug trafficking.
Abdullahi, who had no legal representation, had entered a guilty plea.
Following an application for remand by the prosecutor, Mr Jeremiah Aernan, of NDLEA, Justice Jude Dagat, ordered that the accused should be remanded at Ikoyi Prisons.
The case has been adjourned to February 19.
The accused was arrested last November 14 at Alaba-Rago in Ojo on Lagos-Badagry Expressway with about 8.4 kg of hemp (Cannabis Sativa) which he sold to touts at the market.
