NSCDC arrest father, agent for making 12-year-old to serve as house help

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Jigawa have arrested a 65-year-old father who lodged a complaint that his 12-year-old daughter was missing after he gave her out as house help.

He had been earning a N5,000 monthly stipends for the two years that the daughter was away from home.

Arrested alongside the father was the 37-year-old agent who facilitated the house-help job.

NSCDC spokesman in Jigawa, Mr Adamu Shehu, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Dutse on Wednesday that the 12-year-old child was initially taken to Katsina State to work as a house help.

After serving for about three months in Katsina, the girl was taken to Dutsen Alhaji in Bwari Area Council of the FCT to work for the sister of her boss, but was reported missing five months after.

“All efforts by the father, Malam Audu Sambo to get his daughter back through the agent proved difficult, which made him to report the case to the NSCDC.

“He did not realise that he was an accomplice to the crime of human trafficking,’’ Shehu said.

He added that upon arrest and interrogation, the agent confessed to have taken the girl to Katsina twice where she spent about two years with the consent of her father.

He said the agent, however, denied knowing that the girl was taken to Abuja to serve another woman.

He equally confessed that he had been in the business for years to augment his income from farming.

“Investigation also showed that there are four other girls aged between 12 years and 16 years whom the agent had taken to the Katsina madam and to another woman in Abuja to serve as house helps.

“Further investigation showed that the father of the victim received calls twice from his daughter while she was in Abuja and also received N10,0000 from the girl’s madam before her disappearance,’’ Shehu added.

He said that the NSCDC Commandant in the state, Mr Musa Alhaji, advised parents to stop giving out underage children to serve as domestic workers as it exposed them to exploitation and to social vices.

Shehu assured that the suspects would be charged in court at the conclusion of investigation.