Operatives of the Ogun State Police Command have rescued 22 teenage girls who were lured away from Akwa Ibom State to Ogun for prostitution.
The command’s spokesman, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi in a statement on Saturday, said the police in an operation, coordinated by the Area Commander Ota, ACP Muhideen Obe, rescued the girls.
He said the police team, upon credible intelligence received, that minors were being recruited from other states and used as commercial sex workers at KOLAB hotel in Itele Ota, stormed the said brothel at about 8.00 pm, where the 22 teenagers whose ages ranged between 10 and 14 were rescued.
On interrogation, the girls narrated how they were lured from their respective villages in Akwa Ibom State to Ogun, with the promise to employ them as sales girls in restaurants and supermarkets, only for them to get to Lagos and were transferred to a brothel in Ogun State as commercial sex workers.
They narrated further that, they were deprived of using phone or any communication devices, therefore, making it impossible for them to reach out to their parents or relations.
The manager of the brothel, Isaac Ogbaji, 33, and ten other male suspects were also arrested during the operation.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, CP Edward Awolowo Ajogun, has ordered that the family support unit of the Area Command, Ota should take over the investigation of the case, identify the recruiting cartel and bring them to justice as soon as possible.
