Warning: This story accommodates particulars of sexual assault.
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Uyo, Nigeria – When Blessing* boarded a bus early on a January morning in 2017 for the 60km (37 miles) journey from her house in Calabar, in Nigeria’s Cross River State, to a village in neighbouring Akwa Ibom State, she thought she was going to satisfy a company government a couple of potential job provide.
The ten-hour ordeal that adopted nonetheless haunts her, years later.
It began with a job posting on Jiji, a web-based commerce platform, in December 2016.
On the time, Blessing was 24 years outdated. She had simply completed a diploma course and was planning to start college the next yr. However first, she wanted to save cash for her charges and dwelling bills. And that meant discovering a job.
Like many different younger Nigerians searching for employment within the digital age, Blessing made a social media publish in quest of job gives, leaving her contact info in order that potential employers might attain her.
Just a few weeks later, she received a name from a person who advised her there was a gap for an entry-level function at ExxonMobil, an American oil and fuel firm with a drilling licence in Nigeria. He requested that she convey a tough copy of her ID to an tackle within the neighbouring state to proceed the applying course of.
She had doubts however hoped her weeks of job searching have been lastly about to repay.
“I advised [the man] that I wasn’t snug [travelling so far to meet him], being that I don’t know him. However he insisted that I didn’t have a alternative. And I used to be desperately in want of a job at the moment,” Blessing, who’s now 30, recollects.
When she advised her mom concerning the name, she too tried to influence the person that Blessing might merely scan her ID and e-mail him a replica of it, as an alternative of travelling throughout states. However the man insisted, so Blessing’s mom borrowed the cash for her bus fare.
‘Watch out for canines’
After 4 hours on the bus, Blessing arrived within the city of Uyo in Akwa Ibom State at 10am.
“Once I received there, I referred to as him. He despatched me the placement [an address in the village] by way of SMS. He advised me to take a taxi to Oron street, then I ought to take a [motorcycle taxi] and search for a home with [a] ‘watch out for canines’ [sign],” she says.
The street to the village of Nung Ikono Obio is untarred and lined by thick vegetation on either side. When she noticed the situation of the street, Blessing contemplated turning again however reasoned that she had already spent an excessive amount of on journey.
“I didn’t need to go house with out suggestions [for my mother],” she recollects.
However when Blessing arrived on the home with the “watch out for canines” signal, she was shocked by what she noticed. It was the positioning of ongoing development; exterior, labourers have been shifting sand from a heap to combine concrete which they used for the inspiration.
The person she had been talking to on the cellphone additionally shocked her – he appeared too younger to be a company government. It later turned out that he was simply 16.
Blessing says he requested her to sit down on a bench and anticipate his father, who would focus on the job provide together with her. In the meantime, the labourers continued working round her.
“There have been individuals working so I didn’t suspect something,” she recollects. “At about 2 o’clock, I grew to become uncomfortable as a result of time was operating quick and I used to be speculated to be heading again to Calabar.”
The boy advised her to not fear, that they would depart as quickly as he had paid the labourers.
However at 5pm, when the labourers left, the boy locked the gate, and Blessing was left alone with him contained in the compound. When she protested, he threatened to kill her and demanded that she enter a close-by room.
She describes what occurred subsequent. “He advised me to obey him and never hesitate, in any other case he would harm me and nobody would come to my rescue. The room was so darkish however there was a small mattress. He advised me to sit down on it. He advised me to undress. That was after I began pleading.”
Blessing began crying. She advised him that she didn’t need the job any extra.
“He introduced out a knife tied with crimson cloths and [said] that if I didn’t undress, he would stab me.”
Then he raped her.
Rape and homicide
In August this yr, Uduak “Ezekiel” Akpan, now 22, was discovered responsible of raping and murdering Iniubong Umoren, a 26-year-old job seeker, in April 2021. After Umoren’s case began trending on social media, Blessing noticed posts and realised the attacker was the identical man who had raped her in 2017.
Like Blessing, Umoren had made an open name on social media for a job. “#AkwaIbomTwitter please. I’m actually in want of a job, one thing to do to maintain my thoughts and soul collectively whereas contributing dutifully to the group. My location is Uyo. I’m inventive, actually good at pondering critically, and most significantly a quick learner. CV accessible on request,” she tweeted on April 27, 2021.
As with Blessing, Akpan had then lured her to his house – the identical one, nonetheless underneath development all these years later – underneath the pretext of a job interview.
Whereas there, Umoren despatched a one-second WhatsApp audio message to her good friend Uduak Obong. When Obong referred to as her again, she heard her good friend’s screams. So she despatched a frantic tweet suggesting Umoren may be at risk. On-line, Nigerians started investigating. Inside a number of hours, they discovered Akpan’s Fb pages and dug up his digital footprint. A Twitter person received a leak of Akpan’s name log. With the decision logs, he geolocated the place Akpan was when he had final referred to as Umoren’s cellphone.
The next day, Umoren’s physique was present in a shallow grave in the identical compound in Nung Ikono Obio the place Blessing had been raped years earlier.
After Akpan attacked Blessing, she was too traumatised to report it. She didn’t even inform her mom what had occurred. However she did go to the hospital to get examined for sexually transmitted illnesses.
Blessing got here ahead after Umoren’s loss of life, and prosecutors referred to as her to provide proof towards Akpan at his trial. Though she didn’t find yourself testifying – she was advised her testimony was not wanted – she sees her resolution as a primary try at searching for justice for what occurred to her.
Within the assertion Akpan gave to the police earlier than his trial commenced – a confession he later tried to recant, saying it was obtained underneath duress, though the choose dominated towards him – he admitted to having attacked six different girls, together with Blessing. Umoren was the one one he killed.
A number of victims
Twenty-five-year-old Miriam Akpan (no relation to the perpetrator) was one in all Akpan’s different victims. In December 2020, determined for a job, she posted on a Fb group referred to as Job Emptiness in Uyo, promoting her pursuits and {qualifications}.
“Please, something, I can do,” she wrote, mentioning that she had the equal of a highschool certificates and would take any job. Nobody provided her one till Akpan stated he would pay her 35,000 Nigerian naira ($80) a month as a secretary in an “built-in farm”. Miriam was excited. For somebody and not using a college diploma, a job that paid greater than the minimal month-to-month wage of 30,000 naira ($69) felt like an incredible alternative.
She agreed to satisfy him to debate the small print of the job provide. However as an alternative of an interview, she was drugged and raped.
For greater than a yr Miriam had suppressed the reminiscence of what occurred to her. She saved it from her sister, the one rapid household she has. However as individuals tried to find Umoren, she noticed Akpan’s image being shared on Twitter and all of the emotion she had tried to bury got here speeding again. “I didn’t even give it some thought, I simply commented [on Twitter] that this individual robbed me final December,” she says.
However her final title raised suspicions, and a few accused her of being associated to Uduak Akpan. Umoren’s kinfolk didn’t instantly belief her when she suggested them to go to Akpan’s home that night time to seek for the lacking lady.
The next day, Miriam’s instructions led the police and Umoren’s kinfolk to the compound the place they discovered her physique.
Miriam’s court docket testimony additionally helped convict Akpan.
He was subsequently sentenced to loss of life by hanging for the homicide of Umoren, and life imprisonment for her rape.
Hovering unemployment
However Akpan isn’t the one individual to have taken benefit of Nigeria’s employment disaster.
It is not uncommon for Nigerians to announce on social media that they’re searching for jobs. With a hovering unemployment price, many discover unconventional methods of discovering work. Graduates are generally seen holding placards at main bus stops and expressways pleading for jobs; others make on-line banners; and members of the Nationwide Youth Corps who end their service additionally publish their certificates on social media, asserting that they’re prepared for employment.
Nigeria’s unemployment price stands at 33.3 p.c, based on knowledge from the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics, which signifies that greater than 23 million individuals both don’t have any job or work for lower than 20 hours every week. Amongst these aged between 15 and 35, the unemployment price stood at 42.5 p.c in 2020.
The excessive variety of unemployed individuals searching for jobs additionally makes Nigeria’s labour market a “breeding floor” for criminals who lure candidates in with job interviews, stated Taibat Hussain, a youth and gender equality advocate. “Criminals … lure candidates in with pretend job interviews, after which rob, rape and, in excessive instances, kill them. This class of youth, after spending years with out employment alternatives, falls prey to the techniques and is left with no different alternative than to provide in,” she advised Al Jazeera.
As a part of reporting this story, Al Jazeera met a 26-year-old man arrested in Cross River State for the alleged rape of an 18-year-old lady to whom he had promised a job. We aren’t naming him as he’s awaiting trial.
When Al Jazeera met him at Calabar Correctional Centre, he was sporting a blue shirt with its collar raised and a pair of too-small slippers. He had already been behind bars for greater than a yr. He advised Al Jazeera he had slept with the lady however denied raping her. “I used to be going to assist her get the job however she is offended as a result of the job didn’t come as quick as she needed,” he stated.
However in an announcement the lady gave to the police detailing her expertise, she advised a special story. She met the person whereas searching for work vacancies, she stated. He advised her there was a cleansing place open in his office – a producing firm in Calabar.
“He requested me to convey my software to his home in order that he can assist me right it and submit [it]. He checked out my software and stated it’s not right. He wrote one other one and advised me to recopy it with my handwriting. After I completed copying it, I needed to go however he didn’t let me go. He began kissing me and touching my breast. He used his proper hand to carry my arms collectively and his left hand to cowl my mouth,” her assertion within the police report reads.
Consultants say that almost all victims of doubtful employment scams are youthful girls searching for low-skilled jobs, who make up a big variety of the unemployed inhabitants, based on the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics.
Extorted by ‘jobs on the market’
Whereas predators like Akpan make the most of determined job seekers, there are registered corporations that additionally extort these determined individuals in different methods.
Oladeinde Olawoyin, a Nigerian journalist who has investigated pretend employment businesses, discovered 50 instances of candidates being extorted. These businesses get candidates to pay for a registration bundle – often charging 5,000-10,000 naira ($11-23) – with the promise of discovering them a job, but most by no means do. A few of these corporations are registered as consultancies to avoid the regulation that makes it unlawful for an individual to pay to achieve employment, Olawoyin explains.
“Lots of the businesses don’t have jobs to provide,” he says. “They cost candidates for registration kinds and don’t actually get them any job. There are a number of who might need [a] few jobs however they recruit extra individuals than the [number of] job[s] they’ve. In a pool of about 1,000, they may throw in possibly 20 jobs or much less.
“These businesses know that Nigeria is [a] free for all. So that they … gamble with individuals’s life and extort them. Most frequently they modify their location when their notoriety spreads. They alter their title and placement. So it’s doable {that a} job seeker may get scammed two, three, or 4 instances by the identical set of individuals with completely different names and addresses.”
John Nyamani, the director of employment and wages at Nigeria’s Ministry of Labour, advised Al Jazeera that “desperation”, social media and job seekers wanting a fast repair have been accountable for individuals being preyed upon.
“We don’t need to observe the principles as a result of we’re in a rush to get employment,” he stated.
Nyamani suggested job seekers to be circumspect of alternatives marketed on social media that can’t be traced to a longtime organisation. “They’re deceived with jobs and it’s due to the scenario of issues. The federal government can solely attempt its finest by way of the safety businesses to teach individuals on methods to watch out. Not each advert you see on social media [is one] that you just reply to. If you must reply to it, make clarifications, and ask the Ministry of Labour. The Ministry of Labour has a great, purposeful web site,” he added, referring to the Nationwide Employment Digital Labour Trade (NELEX).
The web site has a pool of vacancies and an inventory of authorized organisations the place Nigerians searching for employment can perform background checks on their potential employers, Nyamani stated.
Nevertheless, advocate Hussain, who has appeared into the federal government’s youth unemployment discount scheme, says such initiatives solely present “short-term aid”, and that there’s a want for everlasting and sustainable connections between the labour market and authorities initiatives that hope to assist younger individuals.
For a lot of, Umoren’s loss of life highlighted how dire the unemployment scenario is in Nigeria, and the dangers younger individuals are prepared to take to discover a job.
Miriam has gone again to highschool the place she is studying to turn into a knowledge scientist. She stated dealing with Akpan once more was one of many hardest issues she has ever executed however, after the incident, she determined to relocate to Lagos to begin afresh.
“I’ve left Uyo and every thing else behind me,” she says. “I can now construct a future that I need. I purchased a laptop computer. I’m going to begin studying methods to code.”
For Blessing, it has been more durable. She is going to solely really feel that there was justice when Akpan hangs, she says, including: “I don’t assume he’ll ever be killed.”
*Title modified to guard the sufferer’s privateness
