- Imaseun and others were given financial help by Nigerian cleric, T.B. Joshua
- He recounted how he was sold into slavery and then arrested in Libya
A young Nigerian barber, Victor Imasuen, who was sold into slavery in Libya while trying to pass the country on his way to Europe has recounted his ordeal.
According to a report by Premium Times, Imasuen said he was introduced to the illegal journey by a client who came to his shop to have a hair cut.
He said: “When I was cutting the hair of one of my customer’s, he advised me to go to Europe where he promised I could earn a lot of money.
“I asked the man how much it would cost me. He said N350,000 but I said I only had N140,000 with me.
“Upon arriving in Libya, the driver said he had not been paid his money and we were sold into the slave trade in Sabha.”
Imasuen said he and ten other Nigerians were sold and kept in a small room.
He said: “They started beating me to call my mother to send money. That was when my mother learned I was not in Nigeria – because I did not tell her before I left.
“For months, I did not hear from her. They kept on beating me everyday and I fell sick. If I went to the toilet, I was shitt*ng blood.”
Imasuen said ladies caught up in the slave trade had it even worse than the men.
He said: “They would send them out to do prostitution before selling them to another person; I know of a girl there who was sold three times.”
According to him, most of the enslaved females fell pregnant “without even knowing the father of the child.”
When a picture of Imasuen suffering in Libya was circulated in his home, they managed to come together to raise the money to secure his freedom in March 2017.
After gaining his freedom, he attempted to travel to Tripoli, hoping to join the thousands of illegal migrants who would brave the sea to try and reach Italy by boat.
“I didn’t even get to Tripoli before I was caught and taken to prison. I met more than 10,000 Nigerians there. We only eat once a day there – one piece of bread. I would drink salt water.”
From prison, he was eventually sent to the deportation camp where he was repatriated to Nigeria.
Imasuen was one of the immigrants at the Libyan deportation camp who spoke with CNN’s correspondent Nima Elbagir in a viral video that exposed the ongoing slave trade in Libya.
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com earlier reported that the Libyan government has reacted to the slave trade of Africans in Tripoli, and condemned the act as criminal and call on international communities for help.
The Libyan ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Attia Alkhoder, who made this statement on Friday during a press conference at Abuja said that his government had ordered the relevant agency to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the incident.
Nigerians speak on slavery in Libya on NAIJ.com TV
Source: Naija.ng