 olé bagai  256                                                  tienes  saus acre dà  very hot there are no trees around everything is just blank like you're just seeing only the soil that sand is the only thing you're seeing so you're not seeing anything that is going to give you hope and then to what's in it all you're seeing bones if they pack and say rest the only thing you're going to see is probably bones from animals and human beings that have died some people would just maybe like people who like plane would just put their hand like as if they are packing sand and then the next thing is bone the video screen hey see bono everybody will run you know it was just now i'm laughing but then it was very traumatizing like you see weird things only so after that we noticed that actually we were running in a circle so the driver explained to someone that there were security persons around policemen that's the anijia police so we are not supposed to pass them except they are not there so we have to wait until those policemen are out and then i think after a while those policemen started getting really close so the drivers left us they fled for their lives and then where they packed us was very hot so we sat there we were waiting for them to come back those security policemen didn't even come where we were but then we lost someone while struggling for water there was no water the drivers had already left so i think the man's heart failed he's not a young boy he's not he's not it should be like around 50 something so i think his heart failed or something i don't even know what to say happened to him but he was just lying down nobody had a clue that the man was already dead so when the drivers eventually came back they found that the guy was dead they just did their arab or muslim ritual just did something put their clothes then used sand to cover the man and that was all we left you know we all cried while living people were singing sorrowful songs and then after a while the police cut up with us what that part too was traumatizing for me because the drivers left again as usual they started running this time they were running and asking us to jump out of the hills they were running with their cars it's not like they are running they packed somewhere and left no this time they were running with their cars and they were asking us to jump off the car it was difficult for me to jump i'm not i don't know i'm slim but i wouldn't say i'm athletic so a lot of people were jumping out which was hard for me so but at some point i jumped i didn't sustain any injuries at then but then when i was running because of the nature of the place there are tons everywhere the tons kept piercing my my leg and everything no sandals we already lost our bags in the car i was just um running alongside people so the kind of race was people are running towards this direction as they are running they are running back people are running towards this you join these ones you know everybody is trying to escape but the security persons are already surrounded everywhere and then with armored cars i wouldn't have an idea if they were asked to shoot anyone but they were shooting kind of to threaten us to stay in one place but people were still running so the shooting continued in stop so why they were shooting at some point they are not shooting like randomly like maybe releasing bullets often but just once once once just like that so people a lot of people were running towards the direction i joined them anywhere they are running to as i joined them just like that but then at some point my sister has already left me i don't even know where they run to the guy that was supposed to be taking care of us also left so i just stood somewhere and then i said if these people are going to kill me let them just kill me i was crying like god i was crying seriously i i was saying just kill me let me if i just remember that moment i'm like god if i could survive that there is nothing that god can't save anyone from i was crying i was saying just shoot me just kill me let me just die what kind of suffering is this i was crying and then the guy stopped and then he was saying he was like giving me signal to come closer come closer so when i i got closer to them the man said enter this place i entered he gave me water that was the first thing he did so it was like don't worry don't worry no problem so when he said that don't worry don't worry no problem i just felt like okay then why is it that they are now chasing us is it like they want to save us is it like they want to help or anything so at some point they brought us together they were able to put in fact they they were able to gather as many people as possible to the extent that we filled this big truck was filled with people and then some hillocks too had to join in taking us to the playstation they brought books we started writing our names everyone write your name write your country write your name write your country everyone people were just writing their names and country we did the same so they brought us together and then they told us okay they are going to take us somewhere and then that's where we we sleep for the night and then the register us and return us to our country but before then a white man came to speak to us so the man asked us where we are traveling to and why are we traveling so so many people were saying me i was just looking so many people were saying there's some guy in my country and they are killing us in my country they're suffering in my country there is this in my country you know a lot of people were saying there are reasons for traveling he wasn't asking personally he was just asking the entire people who were there and then there were few minutes so majority of us had to cover our face so that we don't get captured but some people were really vocal like saying so many things before the man addressed us and told us that he's been to Nigeria several and then he's been to most of the african countries too that we have food a lot of us have good shelter particularly nigerians he kept hammering particularly nigerians there's good food in your country i've tasted this i've tested that you know he mentioned most of the meals and then he told us that there is no cost for this kind of traveling do you even know where you're going to do you know if it's worse where you're going to and all of that then they took us somewhere they put us together in a particular environment and a few few days later they came to tell us that we'll be living back to our country so there was rumor everywhere people were saying i pity people that will go back to Nigeria i just pity people that will go back to Nigeria the kind of suffering they will go and suffer police is already waiting for them or my brother called me or said that there is news that they are bringing back people that police is waiting for them they were arrested them because they traveled without documents so we're all scared and then we decided to run away majority of us so at night while the security guards were sleeping majority of us started jumping out of the fence and then somebody brought an idea to open the gate you know some kind of dubious act which is not actually good which wasn't good for us but because of the kind of rumor because of the kind of things we heard we joined everybody left you know we're still hiding it's not like you're leaving and you're just coming out to say i'm going no you're hiding from place to place hiding hiding until we got to a particular house um when we left we got to a particular house whoever six of us in a group now no longer i and those my three people they were with me those two sisters that guy the four of us were complete as are then and then one two of that guys joined us so the person that owned the house agreed to keep us in her house for that night and then i think her husband came back and asked to where she told the husband the husband brought a driver so none of us had an idea that we were sold so the man sold us to the driver none of us had an idea we just thought the man helped us you know that was the idea in my head like ah god bless this man who he finally helped us out of this place so the driver took us proceeded to somewhere they called nitel that was what they told us that that place is nitel so they hid us in their family house at first then um in that their family house we met their one of the sisters that had already gone to italy before they let it told us she can't speak english so she had to use diagram to express herself she gave a sign of water and then a ship on the water and then she told us how she was walking there she was washing clothes that's probably doing dry cleaning or something like i don't know what she was doing over there but me i just assumed she and then i told my sisters that means maybe she did house help walk over there so we had fun with them because they were nice people i didn't figure out if they were among the people who bought us but they were nice to us they gave us food that was the first place where i had to brush my teeth have my bath you know it was a good treatment for us so throughout the four days when their house they treated us nicely and then after a while the driver came back and then the driver told us that in few days he will come and take us this thing was already summing up to like three weeks already within the desert environment few days later he came again and then he said um oh yeah get ready you'll be leaving this night after a few hours he came back in the night and then they told us everyone to lie down inside the hillocks and then they sealed it so they took us from there took us to another garage then that garage they had a lot of drivers now it wasn't just him so he was i think he was looking around for passengers but didn't succeed that day so he told us to stay in a particular room don't come out so he comes back four days later he came back came back with food he didn't take us out of there after like two days he came back again came back with food so i told my brothers that the food is not safe he's enticing this guy has caged us here probably something go wrong let's leave this place so the the man and then the other guy that was with us said okay let's leave okay so if we leave now where will we go to i say me if i live like this i'll be walking down i would i want to see a policeman they should take me back to nigeria what kind of suffering is this one this place that we are they locked us for like for this not safe the um house is very enclosed that same breeze that was even blowing in the other place was still blowing and bringing sand so that i'm more comfortable here they said okay let's leave we left we met some drivers come come they served food eat don't worry we'll take you liby they are not even calling it libya they will tell you liby liby i'm like i'm not going to liby me nigeria no liby like their own is don't worry we'll help you anyway you want to go to that particular place you want to go to we'll help you get there but you can't go back so um i told my brother that these guys are actually saying that they want to help us go back to um to to go to libya but they can't help us go to nigeria my brother was like why did they need to go back to nigeria before we are going forward it's not backward you know after everything we spent a few hours with those guys no head way out i told them they are not even ready to take us to libya carry my bag and it was more like that stubbornness was actually what saved us because i don't even know what was their plan but i just told my brothers i'm not staying here one minute again i'm leaving so because i was stubborn they said hey if we leave you now who knows what will happen to you oh yeah let all of us keep going they joined me the drivers were offended they were like come back come back come back come back within answer we left until we met um these um um policemen so the one of the policemen just called us and then my brother said we are going to libya the man said ah you don't have like he was explaining to them my brother you don't have problem i will carry you to where your brothers are plenty um and then i figured out plenty Nigerians and then i i told my brother if there is a place where a lot of people are it's better than this place where it's just the six of us so they took us from there to where a lot of Nigerians are i met a lot of people i felt a bit comfortable there was no much space for the six of us but we just had to like manage in that place where they kept us and then we spent some days again there so um we were waiting for the drivers to come they didn't come and then after a few days um the drivers came so they started calling like they shared us into groups this driver take this one this driver take this one this driver take this one so then we were already approaching libya so they took us it wasn't now up to um two days we got to libya so when we got to libya um the i think it was the border they came the driver came down then asked us to he then asked us to pay a certain amount of money he asked everyone to bring a certain amount of money so that my brother helped us to pay us and then the um they took us from there after paying that money they took us from there they just proceeded into libya we got to sabah the driver called the driver called someone that particular person they called came around and the person told us that he is going to take this group somewhere so they took that particular group they were just taking people like in groups in different groups in different groups and then from that point um they took us to a particular man the man is ibu so when we got to his house the man looked at all of us was like the guys this is your room the girls this is your room so in that room where he said is for the girls i saw a lot of ladies even people that were younger than me were in that same room so i was like how did you guys get here what is going on you know we started talking a lot of beneath girls they were just saying ah welcome on this one i did welcome on this one you know jedi means new person you know they were just saying a lot of things and then at the end of the day i got um bonded to a particular lady that that really shared um her experience happened to be that she has not been able to pay her money so when i asked her she said 300 000 so we started getting information from the people within that if you are unable to pay your money you stay there so towards the evening of that same day like around um five p.m the man came to assemble all the new passengers all the new passengers come outside we came out he took us a particular hold asked all of us to sit on the floor we sat down he said we are welcome we answered me i was even feeling comfortable believing that this person is is from my place he's a nigerian so he should be nice you know so when he was about to tell us what libya was the first time was a gunshot in fact for like a few seconds i couldn't recover from the shock i had to hide behind our brush that the whole of us just held him the man said everybody oh yeah this way this way like he had to like scatter also that we don't get to communicate with each other he had big big boys in fact those big boys if if they handle one person i'm sure the person will not survive it so i was shaking and then the man said he just wants to let us know that we are in libya now and that now that you are here he's giving us just a few hours to give him his money he paid for us he bought us he was saying it's like you know when someone is actually practically trying to pass a message across to you with everything he's got inside the kind of anger i'm like i didn't offend this man before but the way he was saying he was like i'm just telling you that you have to pay this money within the space of susu and so as if you don't pay it for the girls ha you work and give me my money for the boys you die here so it is sounded somehow i just we just had to like beg him just allow us to discuss we are from the same family he said okay after a while then my brother said please give us your phone he's you are begging you are begging you are begging in tears if you're even asking for the phone he's not up to like they are not giving you to call they are giving you to just say i'm in libya please call me back you can't use their airtime to inform whoever you are informing sorry so um at the end of the day we were able to reach out to the people that invited us to france those unsaid they will send someone to come and pick us in few hours we should be patient we're there we're waiting after a while i came to call them my brothers your people they disturb me with call your people they discuss if they disturb me again with call eh now beat now go beat you you know we're hearing it from our own side and i was like is that all bros this person is talking to like this you know the fear was more we played there okay can we talk to bros so you have to plead for the to see a guy in that in fact you're not even allowed to see a guy is they don't give you room to see any guy so we're able to like talk to bros how far did they call he now asked for phone again to reach out to them so he was able to get to them again and then they sent someone across so i think the person who was supposed to bring the money was now pricing lower than the 300 i think the person was not saying 250 that was where the anger came from at the end of the day the man came with the money he paid one million for the four of us and then took us from that place to his house from his house we moved he's still within the yes still in libya so from that place to the sea coast and the sea coast was not very easy for me as well that's from his house to the sea coast was also very traumatizing and then at some point i even had an experience where i was sleeping in a room in that that particular room was mixed with both guys and ladies so there were these sudanese that they were they brought into the room to join us because initially it was with ghanians so the sudanese took a part of the room we took a part of the room and so in the night i was sleeping i covered myself because i have this habit of using rubber to cover myself from foot to head and then there was this guy that that i don't know among the sudanese he came proud to where i was what topped me i woke up i was like what the guy put his hand in his pocket brought out five dinner five dinner in in in the morning is five hundred naira nigerian naira was begging me like i could not wrap my head around it so i just screamed and then the gana guy woke up first and was like what is happening you know they started arguing amongst themselves and at the end of the day those sudanese they apologized on behalf of their brother that they were sorry about what happened probably he just thought something different in his mind before bringing it at their sorry so the whole thing was migrants abusing migrants security agencies abusing migrants the experience was was just too hard for me i had a case where someone was trying to communicate something to me that i should sit down in in the in the vehicle those long trucks i didn't understand him i don't know that gams means sit down i'm just new in the environment but this this man had an idea in his head that any language he speaks or whatever he says i should understand so the next thing was he i don't know what what he used in hitting me on my head i was bleeding and then somebody was saying sit down sit down that's what he's saying sit down so i sat down and then i noticed i was bleeding on that the lady was like oh sorry if i knew you were the one who was talking to i would have told you to sit down if you are sat down the guy will not hit you and then in most cases for them to say sit down they will have to shoot you know for you to sit down at least the the communication differences should have been understood by them but the case was different for them when they communicate you don't understand they become violent so it was really hard to go to the seacoast spend some time around the seacoast trying to cross had people die someone died while giving beds so hard cases of people dying a particular lady died trying to give birth because there were no professionals around and then people claimed that in their countries they were professionals they could help give birth they could help deliver you know it was it was a sad experience at the end of the day she died the baby died and i just told myself this this one is just a wasted time like wasted efforts you're trying to get out of trouble you get into more trouble and even family doesn't know where you are because you can't even call them i don't have access to any communication device i i can't reach anyone except maybe i'll have to pay someone to borrow his phone or have to you know this situation was even very difficult because a lot of people will not even give you their phones to make call they wouldn't even want you to buy the air time to make the call so it was a very difficult one until finally the security agencies came they arrested every one of us around that seacoast they arrested everyone in fact people try to escape some try to jump into the water you know people try to run but wherever you are they'll find you and they'll bring you back to the spot and then um they took us to a detention center gherian after a few days they also took us from there to Tripoli um terrig mata detention center so it was in terrig mata that the international organization for migration came visiting and then some UN agencies once once they come around they check on us whenever they are coming these um libyan agents and policemen they will ask us they will give us so many things you wouldn't even know if it is the UN guys that brought it but when they are gone they will lock us up back again when they come around do sports they will bring us out it's as if we are enjoying our lives when those guys are gone we'll go back to the prison they lock us up again and all of that so um iom came we all filled forms those who want to go back home because a lot of people said they are not going those ones that didn't go did uh what they call banami should pay um someone pays for you like someone will come around pay yes kind of build them um pay the money take you out of the prison and then you work for the person so i almost tried that but a particular lady she is from delta so she speaks my language and then she told me that if i pay this money first she used our language to tell me that is if you try this you just die and then if i remember that she told me that and if anyone comes to me to say i want to help you to live here um i would just tell them i'm not interested i want to go back to Nigeria