An 18-year-old woman from Sierra Leone, Isha Francess Dumbuya, has spoken about how she was trafficked to Nigeria after being promised acting work. She shared her story during an interview with Nigerian influencer and activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as Very Darkman.
An 18-year-old Sierra Leonean woman, Isha Francess Dumbuya, has described how she was trafficked to Nigeria under the false promise of acting in movies.
She made the disclosure during an interview with Nigerian influencer and activist Martins Vincent Otse, widely known as Very Darkman.
Isha said she met the woman who trafficked her in Freetown, where she was selling cake by the roadside.
“She was my customer,” Isha said. “I was selling cake on the road. She used to buy from me.”
According to her, the woman met her more than five times before convincing her to travel to Nigeria.
“She told me acting and work,” Isha said. “She said I will come and act movies.”
When asked what type of movies, the teenager replied:
“Those Nigerian movies that I used to watch in Sierra Leone.”
Isha said she did not tell her parents before leaving the country.
She said they travelled around April and arrived in Nigeria on 17 April, meaning she had been in the country for about eight months.
She said she was not the only person recruited.
“From Sierra Leone, we were 10,” she said. “Some were from Mali, some from Ghana, and some from Nigeria.”
The group first arrived in Lagos before moving to Asaba, in Delta State. It was there, she said, that the real reason for the trip was revealed.
“When we reach Asaba, she said it is prostitution,” Isha said.
She said she refused and asked to return home.
“When I told her I don’t want to do it and I want to go back, she said I should give her money,” she said. “I don’t have the money.”
With no money and no support, the 18-year-old said she planned her escape.
“I find a way to escape in the night,” she said.
She said she later met a man on the roadside and begged him for help. Although he could not take her to his home, he helped her find shelter.
“He took me to the Muslim community in Asaba,” she said. “I stayed there for the night and explained my problem.”
Members of the community advised her to travel to Abuja to seek help from the Sierra Leone Embassy.
But she said she was turned away.
“When I reached the embassy, they said there is no money and no place to keep me,” she said.
She later went to the Ghana Embassy, where security officials listened to her story and asked about her situation.
Her case has renewed attention on human trafficking in West Africa, where young women and girls are often lured with false promises of jobs, travel, or entertainment opportunities.
Rights groups say teenagers working in informal jobs, such as street trading, are among the most vulnerable.
Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as Very Darkman gave her a phone and committed to supporting her with transportion to return back to Sierra Leone
