A 24-year-old girl yesterday painted a sordid picture of how a pastor
she fellowships with at the Heavenly Ambassadors’ Ministries Inc.
lured her into prostitution.
Florence (surname withheld), a
former stylist, dancer and singer while with the church located at
Isihor on the busy Benin-Lagos Expressway in Ovia North East Local
Government Area of Edo State, said she was tricked while she was 18
years old by Pastor Endurance Eghoze to travel to meet his sister based
in Russia with the hope of assisting her to look for a greener pasture
overseas but ended up in the web of street hawkers there.
Florence
said she worked tirelessly for four years (2013 to 2017) to pay an
agreed sum of $45,000 (about N17.1 million) to her ‘Madam’ and
trafficker, Ms. Vivian Eghoze, who later dumped her on the streets of
Russia before she was deported home in February.
Already, operatives of the state police command have arrested Vivian and her brother, Endurance.
The
arrest was made possible following a tip-off by an Edo-based
Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Initiative for Youths Awareness on
Migration, Immigration, Development and Reintegration (IYAMIDR).
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Moses Nkombe, confirmed their arrest.
He said: “The matter is being investigated by the police.”
Florence, who has been reunited with her family, is begging for urgent assistance from good-spirited individuals and government.
She said after paying her ‘madam’ the huge sum, she is also battling to save herself from a mysterious ailment.
Vivian and Endurance have allegedly trafficked over 45 girls for prostitutions overseas.
The
victims said they were daily subjected to excruciating conditions in
cold of the nights to meet customers without anything to show for their
years of enslavement.
According to them, even their parents and
relations wallow in hunger, poverty and emptiness except for the lavish
lifestyles of their hosts and their exotic cars and eye-pooping
mansions.
Florence explained that her trouble started in late
2012 when her mother amid cries and wailing narrated her plight of being
locked in huge debt to their pastor, who is also the second in command
of the church, who quickly cashed in on the ugly situation to convince
her to join his sister in Russia.
She added that a few days
before she travelled to Lagos to meet Vivian’s close relations, her
mother who was in Benin compelled her to take an oath of secrecy after
collection of her pubic hair, pants and braziers while ‘madam’s uncle
also raped her in a hotel room where she was lodged preparatory for
Russia and sternly warned her not to tell anyone about the illicit act.
She
said: “I had to borrow money to do my passport. She keeps calling and
assuring me that all will be well. I was made to take oath of
allegiance.
“I borrowed N30,000 from a cooperative society, to do
my passport and I told her (Ms Vivian) that my passport was ready and
she said okay. And from there I proceeded to another level at which she
called Endurance that they would be the ones to run everything and that
my mind should be at rest. After some weeks, she called me again and
gave me words of encouragement. That was how we ended our talk.”
NewTelegraph