A Benin High Court, presided over by Justice Isoken Eramehan, has sentenced a 28-year-old woman, Miss Vivian Francis, to one year imprisonment for trafficking three girls to Edo State for prostitution.
Justice Eramehan, however, gave the convict an option of N125,000 fine.
The prosecutor had earlier told the court that the convict, early this year, recruited three girls between ages 15 and 18 from Cross River State and brought them to Benin under the guise of working in her restaurant.
He said upon reaching Benin, the girls were taken to a brothel and forced into prostitution, even as they insisted that that was not part of their agreement.
According to him, the three girls escaped from her custody at night and that as they were running, they met members of the Federal Road Safety Corps on duty and explained their predicament to them.
He said the FRSC officials later called the officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), who rescued the girls and thereafter arrested and charged the convict to court.
The convict pleaded guilty to the offence on her second appearance in court, and justice Eramehan sentenced her accordingly.
Speaking on the judgment, NAPTIP Zonal Commander in charge of Edo, Delta and Bayelsa States, Mrs Ijeoma Uduack, said the command would not relent in its efforts in ensuring that traffickers are made to face the law.
She said the conviction would serve as a deterrent to other traffickers.
Meanwhile, the convict, who spoke with journalists, said she regretted her actions and advised other ladies not to indulge in such a practice.
