Lebanon Police Arrests Employer Of Nigerian Sold Into Slavery

Lebanese police have arrested Youssef Maurwan, the employer of a 23-year-old Nigerian teacher, Omolola Ajayi who was sold as a domestic slave in the Arab country.

It was also disclosed that Maurwan had been taken into custody and would be prosecuted for human trafficking and enslavement by the Lebanese authorities.

“Maurwan is in the custody of the Lebanese police and is being investigated. He has been ordered to return Ajayi’s passport which he seized upon her arrival in Lebanon. He will also be made to provide her return ticket to Nigeria. No date has been fixed for her return,”

The Punch quoted a NIDCOM official.

But a spokesman for the commission, Abdul-Rahman Balogun, said he could not confirm the latest developments.

However, a statement released by Nigerians in Diaspora Commission confirmed that Omolola, who was rescued on Monday, is still with the Nigerian Ambassador to Lebanon, Goni Bura, in Beirut.

Ajayi was fraudulently recruited as a teacher but sold as a domestic slave in Lebanon.

In a viral video last week, the single mother from Osun State narrated her ordeal in the hands of her masters in Lebanon.

“My plan was to be teaching pupils English Language in Lebanon. On getting here, the person that brought me seized my passport. I was wondering what happened. I later knew I had been sold off to slavery,”

She said.

“If I am sick, they won’t take me to hospital. They will only give me drugs. Half of the people whom we came here together have died. I am appealing to Family Life Support to come to my aid. I don’t want to die here. I need help to return home.

“The person I live with wants to rape me but I have been resisting him. He collected my phone and said he would not give me the phone until I accept to have sex with him. It is when he sleeps or goes out that I manage to pick the phone where he keeps it,”

She added.