Story Highlight: Edo government begins rehabilitation of Libyan returnees
December 12, 2017: Comrade Solomon Okoduwa, a member of the Edo state task force on Libya returnee has said that some female victims who were recently evacuated from Libya are pregnant
According to Edo state task force, 560 Nigerians are expected to be repatriated into the country from Libya this week and about 650 Libyan deportees returned to Edo state over the past three months.
Comrade Solomon Okoduwa, further stated that Edo state indigenes make up 70% of Nigerians being repatriated from Libya.
Okoduwa told the Nigerian Tribune that some of the female victims, who were recently evacuated from Libya are said to be pregnant after being violated by their captors while in detention in Libya.
He said the victims were subjected to dehumanising experience by their captors. The task-force member disclosed that 560 Nigerians are expected to be repatriated into the country from Libya this week.
According to him, about 780 indigenes of Edo state who returned from Libya were brought to the state upon their arrival at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos.
Okoduwa called on local and international organisation to assist the government in rehabilitating the Libya returnees, saying the Edo state government for now was solely responsible for the rehabilitation and training of the returnees.
He said: “Apart from taking care of the returnees from the moment they land in Lagos, Edo State government pays children returnees N10,000; adults get N20, 000, while pregnant women get N25,000 each within the first three months of their arrival.
“We also provide accommodation, medicare, training and other important needs while they are with us.” Meanwhile, no fewer than 650 Libyan deportees returned to Edo state over the past three months and the tales of their sojourn in the north African country, where they had planned to cross the Mediterranean sea to Italy, was heart-breaking.
Nigeria Vanguard reports that 168 of them returned to Benin-City on Wednesday, November 29, while 108 arrived Friday, December 1. They were received by officials of Edo state Task Force Against Human Trafficking.