After
spending five years in a Libyan prison, this Nigerian man came home
only to meet the most devastating situation he could ever have bargained
for.
Two of the Libyan deportees
A Nigerian man who was recently deported from Libya after being in
prison for over years has been in tears following the calamity that
befell his household where his only son died in his absence while his
wife got married to his best friend.
The devastated man whose name was given as Harrison , narrated at a
deliverance service at the Synagogue Church of All Nations [SCOAN], how
he left the country for greener pastures in Europe with Italy being his
destination.
However, he ended up in a Libya prison after he narrowly escaped
death on a makeshift boat which capsized with 142 immigrants on board.
Succour came for Harrison when the International Organisation for
Migration [IMO], an arm of the United Nations secured his release and
eventual deportation.
But on coming back to Nigeria, hoping to get back into the warm
embrace of his family, he realized that his wife who thought that he had
died in his quest for greener pastures, had gotten married to his best
friend who should have been looking after his family.
To make the matter worse, Harrison was also hit with the news that his only son had died in his absence.
Read Harrison's story here as narrated by the media team of the SCOAN:
''142 people out on the intrepid voyage that night. 142 naive
men, women and children on a journey to the unknown. 142 people
recklessly risking their lives in the pursuit of a ‘better future’ in
Europe.
But the 142 never arrived. 139 descended to a watery grave that
night. 139 families cruelly robbed of their loved one. 139 destinies
battered by the howling winds of the Mediterranean Seas.
Harrison was one of the only three survivors, clinging desperately
onto an empty oil can. Unbeknown to him, the life he stubbornly clung to
was a reality far worse than death.
A better life lay waiting for him, they said. A land flowing with
the proverbial ‘milk and honey’. An ‘easy job’ with ‘easy money’
abroad.
Desperadoes easily fell for the tactics of deception and Harrison
agreed. The married dock-worker who had recently lost his job was lured
into the false belief that traveling to Europe, ‘no matter the cost’,
was the best option. What began with hope ended up in a journey of
perilous danger and bitter despair.
Harrison set out five years ago, bidding his wife and young son a
tearful farewell and promising he would speak with them as soon as he
reached Italy. He never did.
A tumultuous passage through the deserts finally led the young
Nigerian to the North African nation of Libya. Alongside 141 others,
hustled into a small rubber dinghy, Harrison was pushed into the sea by
those heading an intricate network of human trafficking.
Mid-journey, the makeshift boat hit a rock and began leaking. Chaos
ensued. As water began filling up the boat amidst the screams and cries
of its occupants, Harrison beheld a shocking sight that seared his
conscience.
A mother held her crying baby aloft as the frail boat began to
sink. Before his eyes, he witnessed the ocean swallow mother and son.
Gone. Life snuffed out in one foul watery swoop.
As the boat capsized, Harrison grabbed an empty can that once
contained oil. To his left and right, those he traveled with submerged
into the abyss. With his strength failing, a ship of Libyan coast guards
emerged from the shadows.
Hauled aboard, his ‘rescuers’ brutally beat him to a stupor. The
following morning, he painfully awoke – not in hospital – but in a dingy
prison cell.
The horrors Harrison witnessed in a Libyan underground dungeon go
far beyond the meager description mere words can provide. It was almost
five years of hell on earth.
Life became cheap to the startling degree that Harrison witnessed
dead bodies carried out of the cell on a daily basis. With hopes of a
release barely minimal and scores of new inmates pouring into the
dungeons daily, the young Nigerian had an unusual dream one night.
He saw himself in a large church receiving prayers from a man of
God. He woke in a cold sweat. Shortly afterward, Harrison was among the
over 600 Nigerians in Libya who were deported with the intervention of
the International Organisation for Migration [IOM], a branch of the
United Nations.
However, freedom came along with a heartbreaking reality. Returning
to his home in Ejigbo, Lagos State, the first residents who saw the
‘prodigal son’, disbelievingly threw sand on him, thinking he was a
ghost.
Rumours had spread like wildfire that Harrison had died since his
departure five years earlier. Assuring them he was a real person, he was
led solemnly to his former house. There, the shock of his life awaited.
His wife had remarried – to his best friend. His only son had died.
Five years wasted. Five years lost. Five years that changed everything.
Forlorn and malnourished, Harrison recalled the dream he had in the
Libyan prison and headed to Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN). He
was not alone.
In May 2017, more than N15 million was provided to deportees by the
church’s humanitarian arm, alongside two bags of rice each. This show
of compassion touched him to the core as he realized that what he sought
for abroad was actually available in his own country.
Harrison called on the youths of Nigeria to never undergo such a
journey and be content with what they have. After hearing his sordid
experiences, Prophet T.B. Joshua gave Harrison the sum of N120,000 to
help him start a new life.
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