The Edo State Migration Agency has rescued the paralysed 27-year-old Godstime Uwoghiren, who was allegedly poisoned by his friends for buying a lady’s bike in Burkina Faso.
Uwoghiren arrived at the Benin Airport at about 1:00 pm on Wednesday alongside the Director-General of the agency, Lucky Agazuma, and other officials.
The returnee, who was also unconscious on arrival, was put into a waiting ambulance and taken to the Edo Specialist Hospital, Benin, for medical attention.
Addressing journalists at the airport, Agazuma said the state government was informed of an Edo indigene who was poisoned by his friends for buying a bike in Burkina Faso. He said that Governor Monday Okpehbolo immediately directed the agency to repatriate the victim.
Agazuma noted that it was initially frustrating to get information from the victim’s family, saying it took four months for the agency’s efforts to yield results.
He said, “When they reached out to the governor that Godstime is sick, paralysed, and that he was poisoned in Burkina Faso for buying a bike, the only contact person we were given was his sister.”
We asked her to lead us to the family, but she refused for four months. Today, she is crying profusely. We are taking her to our office for further investigation.
“We were even surprised that the family rejected our efforts to rescue the victim; at the early stage of this rescue mission, the family rejected, but Governor Okpehbolo insisted that we must go and rescue him, and we succeeded,” he said.
Agazuma urged parents to warn their children not to embark on a dangerous journey, adding that many Nigerians are suffering outside the shores of the country.”
The mother of the victim, Mrs. Susan Uwoghiren, thanked Okpehbolo for coming to the victim’s rescue, noting that been worried since they lost contact with him months ago.
She said, “He came to Benin from the village to learn how to drive a truck, but suddenly, he called his father to say that he was travelling out. We asked him how, he said we shouldn’t worry, and the next time we heard from him was when he called that he was in Burkina Faso.
“We were talking regularly until recently, when we didn’t hear from him. When we carried out our investigation, we were told he was seriously sick. So, I told my pastor about it and we started praying. Thank God he is back.”
PUNCH Metro recalls that the agency last week successfully brought back a lady who was trafficked to Mali under the guise of working as a salesgirl in Lagos.
Two other minors, aged 13 and 14, who were being trafficked to Libya, were also intercepted in Kaduna, brought back to Benin, and reunited with their parents.
After several years of illegal migration to Europe through Libya, the Edo State Government under Godwin Obaseki criminalised such trips, as most of the girls taken outside the country found themselves being forced into prostitution by their traffickers.
Okpebholo has also put machinery in place to rescue victims wherever they are.
