ON A BLIND TRIP
Dec 17th, 2008 by admin
They were four Nigerians desperate to get out of Nigeria by any means. Then, they devised an ingenious means to get on board a vessel and hide in its engine compartment.
They had no idea where the vessel was headed. They only armed themselves with a mobile telephone handset which has a radio function so they could discern the country they may be in through the language spoken on the radio.
But hunger and fear of death forced them out of their hiding. They ran out of food after five days and handed themselves over to the vessel’s crew.
The captain of the vessel, M/V Maersk Bali“, resisted the temptation to cast them into the sea and detoured from Morocco, on its way to Spain, back to Nigeria.
His company bore the huge cost arising from the vessel’s travelling hour, additional berthing charges and surcharges.
Yesterday, the Lagos State Comptroller of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Mr Ayo Oredipe, paraded before The Nation the four suspects: Peres Joseph (18), Godgrace Uche (22), Peres India (17) and Ise Igbodane Pal (19).
The suspects had a quite a few things in common. Joseph, India and Pal claimed to be from Bayelsa State. Uche said he hailed from Imo State.
They all claimed to be footballers in search of clubs abroad after several failed attempts to obtain visas on being invited by “clubs in Fiji.”
They live, according to them, “with friends” at Sagbokoji, near Snake Island, Apapa, Lagos, and have been unable to secure jobs.
Joseph, for instance, said he hawked “bons,” fried mixture of flour, to survive. The others said they helped people “carry loads” at the Apapa Port for fees.
They are all also from poor families and are only leaving Nigeria out of frustration.
Questions on why they took such a risk elicited similar responses. The Nation’s conversation with Joseph, said to have once been repatriated from Brazil, went thus:
Where particularly were you going?
I didn’t have any place in mind. We just joined the ship.
So you planned to follow it to wherever it goes?
Yes.
Why did you decide to leave Nigeria in that manner?
I finished Secondary school in 2004, but there was no money to go for further studies. It was out of frustration.
Didn’t you know that what you were trying to do was a crime and risky?
We know it’s against the laws of the land.
How did you people manage to get on board?
We hired a boat. As the ship started to move at about 10.pm, the boat followed it. We paid the boat owner N2,000. One person climbed in first and then took our load and food in. It was the engine room. We went in through an opening near the propeller.
How did they discover you people?
Our food finished and then we started hitting the ship with a hammer to attract attention. They discovered at Morocco. The captain promised to help us when we explained things to him, but somehow, he returned to Nigeria and handed us over to Immigration officials.
India said he dropped out at SS3 this year because his fishermen parents couldn’t pay his school fees. Uche said he was an orphan.
Pal said he never went to a secondary school, that his father was dead, and that his mother, is a fisherwoman, had no money to “take care of me.”
Oredipe said stowing away was not only criminal, as it was done with the intention of evading payment, but was “as bad as a plane hijack.”
He said such acts by Nigerians portray the nation in bad light and give the international community the impression that Nigerian ports are not safe.
The Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mr Chukwura Udeh, Oredipe said, was more determined than ever “to let the whole world know that Nigeria means business in tackling stowing away and related crimes.”
According to Oredipe, Udeh has decided that such stowaway suspects “are to be treated like common criminals,” adding that “maximum punishment is to be visited on them.”
An Assistant Comptroller of Immigration in charge of the Inspectorate, Intelligence and Investigation, Mr Sotonwa Olumide, said the ship’s captain handed the four over to the immigration officials.
The command’s spokesman a Deputy Superintendent of Immigration, Mr Sunday Abutu, said the suspects would be prosecuted.
His words: “At the end of the day, they will be handed over to the police for prosecution. We abhor situations where the corporate image of Nigeria will be tainted. The incidence of human trafficking and stowing away are to be dealt with very seriously now more than ever by the Service.”
Immigration sources said the suspects were “lucky” to still be alive as some other ship operators would have simply thrown them into the sea and moved on to save the huge cost that would arise from a detour.
Culed from The Nation
