I was forced to have sex or I would not eat. Then I found a way to escape my traffickers

Gift was told by traffickers she was going to work in a shop. Photograph: Handout

I dropped out of secondary school four years ago when I got pregnant with my baby girl. There was no money to restart my education. My mother had left my polygamous father years ago, leaving me and my twin sister with him at our home in central Nigeria, although he was barely there.

I started working in another village at a betting shop for a monthly salary of 10,000 naira (£4.50). But in August this year, after one month, I decided to go back home. My journey involved going through the city of Makurdi where I slept overnight at a friend’s house. I was 19.