Drugged, Abducted, Sold For Sex: 'My 10 Days In Hell'
Badly bruised and weak Mereseini Nabou, 19, yesterday recalled what she described as ‘my 10 days in hell.’
Thursday 12 March 2020 | 10:27
Mereseini Nabou with her mother, Nanise Baba at her uncle's home in Lami on March 11, 2020 . Photo: Ronald Kumar.
Badly bruised and weak Mereseini Nabou, 19, yesterday recalled what she described as ‘my 10 days in hell.’
During that time, she claimed that she was drugged, abducted, tortured and sold for sex.
“This was the worst experience of my life. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of my mother, otherwise I would have given up,” Ms Nabou said.
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She alleged that on February 26 she was given a spiked drink by a woman at a bus stop in Vatuwaqa close to the Police post.
The bus stop at Fletcher Road, Vatuwaqa, where Mereseini Nabou alleged she met her captors, is near the Police Community Post. Photos: Ronald Kumar
“She has been having nightmares. She wakes up in the middle of the night and cries out in pain,” her mother, Nanise Baba, 38, said.
Ms Baba clarified that she had not lodged a missing person’s report because her daughter was staying with an uncle in Suva when the alleged incident happened.
She said on previous occasions her daughter had stayed over at friends’ places for days and would eventually return home.
Police spokesperson Ana Naisoro said investigations were continuing.
Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre Co-ordinator Shamima Ali said such cases had been happening, but were never taken seriously.
“I really think that we need to look at this because it is so dangerous for women and girls and they are vulnerable. So, when these cases come, Police must put in all their energy and skills and have good officers investigating these kinds of cases,” Ms Ali said.
“Sometimes when girls go missing, they do go to their friends or relatives place and they are found, but when they have gone missing and never to be seen then our antenna should go up and it is everyone’s business particularly law enforcement that these girls are found.
“Often the attitude is that ‘it is only these females or these naughty girls who go off and people trivialise the cases when it’s girls’. I really think that we all have to work together.”
Read Part 1: https://fijisun.com.fj/?p=500472
Edited by Naisa Koroi
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