How were you trafficked through sport?

Someone who claimed to be an agent came to where we were staying in Delta State and said he can take me to a club in England where multiple trials were happening. He claimed that I was very talented. I was surprised when I caught the attention of these people as I didn’t think I was a good enough football player.

I had to raise money for a Visa, flights, interviews and invitation fees. At the time, it cost 350,000 Naira, which is less than $1000 dollars now, but at the time it was a lot of money. My mother had to take out a loan which had a large interest rate on it.

Eventually the process began, and he took me to the passport office to collect my documents and visa. We travelled from Nigeria to Senegal and then to Cape Verde. As we were travelling, we stopped off at Senegal to collect a British visa.

The agent took my passport in Senegal, and we ended up training there for a couple of months, to acclimatise and prepare for Cape Verde.

We ran miles on the beach each day. It quickly escalated from hard work to suffering.There was a lack of food, so many people started working at the food market. This consisted of transporting the fish from the nets, down to the marketplace. Occasionally you get paid with fish and other times in currency.

As a survivor advocate, what do you think is the most important prevention to trafficking through sport?

I would say it is education. The primary reason people are trafficked from Africa is poverty. Let me give you the parallel. Boys from the United Kingdom may not get excited if you offer to take them to Barcelona, Madrid or Milan. None of those cities offer them anything different. Everything in Africa is about money. Because of poverty and lack of information, it puts everyone in a desperate position to get out of the country. Anything would be better than staying in the country.

In order to stop trickery, people need to be educated. We can educate people to make them understand that they don’t need to fall for this terrible life.

I have been around many schools, and they do not teach on the issue of trafficking through sport in Nigeria or surrounding countries.

In 2018 and 2019, I visited every Nigerian academy, campaigning to raise awareness on the issue of trafficking through sport and the dangers of fake agents. This included background checks and the ability to talk to the people around you.

I noticed that such a large percentage of young people are on social media. If we can get campaigns on these platforms, and share signs of trafficking through sport, this could become more prominent in people's awareness.

What is your involvement with Mission 89?

I started as the content creator, running campaigns for Mission 89 around football academies and helping to sensitise people to fake agents. We had a very successful campaign that reached 726 footballers.

Last year in July, I was asked to be Mission 89's Ambassador. In this role, I am the face of the campaigns and ensure the message of sport trafficking is being carried along.

I help build relationships between victims and the Mission 89 team. I complete many of these tasks through my radio studio and YouTube channel, Elegbete TV Sports.

Lerina, Founder of Mission 89, broke the news recently that a footballer player from Ghana, who had been trafficked, had been returned to his country. This is an example of how our work is making an impact and it gives me such joy.

This interview originally appeared in the November 2021 Issue of the Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking Newsletter.