26-Year-Old Trafficking Victim Abigail, Who Aborted 320 Pregnancies, Dies

Abigail, one of the victims of a Libya based human trafficking ring operating in Nigeria, has died, days after she was rescued from a prostitution cartel in Libya. Saturday Mirror had reported that Abigail, 26, was among more than 500 girls trafficked to Libya for prostitution by a Nigerian syndicate allegedly led by a couple, Alhaji Muritala Sanni and his wife Alhaja Lateefat Sanni, who are still on the run from law enforcement agents.

Tunde Oshokoya , a human rights activist and private investigator who worked with the Alliance of Rights Defenders (ARD), a nonprofit organisation based in Lagos involved in rescuing three of the trafficked girls revealed Abigail’s death.

He said “It is with heavy heart that we announce Abigail’s passing. She died after a brief illness she came down with while she was in Libya. Since we rescued her, we took her for treatment but she gave up the ghost. “It is sad that ARD, an NGO took up the responsibility to rescue and rehabilitate trafficked victims without any assistance from government”. Barrister Ojay Akinwale, the Chief Executive Officer of ARD expressed sadness over the death and urged government to take human trafficking seriously.


Saturday Mirror had reported that Abigail was among three trafficked victims rescued from prostitution in Libya by ARD. She had claimed in the interview that she was trafficked to Libya in 2013, after she was lured there to work as an Auxiliary nurse. She also claimed that she was forced to abort about 320 pregnancies for girls working for the prostitution ring in Libya. Abigail who was very ill during the interview had expressed fear that she would die if she exposed the Libya human trafficking syndicate. She added that soon after her rescue, she received a threat from the syndicate in Libya that she will die if she exposed them. In spite of the threat;

Abigail went ahead and narrated her ordeal in the hands of the traffickers. .”

When contacted, the Zonal Commander of National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person ( NAPTIP) Mr.Joseph Famakin stated that Abigail did not die in their custody.

He said “I am just hearing from you that she is dead. The truth is that I don’t know who this Abigail is but we have reunited the trafficked victims with their families and so none of them died in our custody”