A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has sentenced three women to jail for human trafficking offences.
The court on Tuesday convicted 29-year-old Precious Owoh from Delta State, Blessing Gabriel (aka Precious) from Edo state and Rose Gabriel from Edo state both 25 years old.
The convicts were arraigned in court on the April 20, 2016 by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) on a 4-count charge of recruiting a 27-year-old woman for exploitative prostitution.
Their offences include knowingly exporting the victim from Nigeria to Dubai for prostitution, organising, facilitating and promoting foreign travel which promotes exploitative prostitution for the victim to Dubai.
Delivering the judgment, the presiding Judge, Honourable Justice Babs Kuewumi sentenced them to five years imprisonment and fine of N3.2m for the offences.
In a similar development, a Federal High Court sitting in Makurdi on Wednesday sentenced 39-year-old Daniel Abende, from Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State, to two years imprisonment for human trafficking.
The convict recruited a 14-year-old girl from Benue State and took her to Bayelsa state under the guise of getting her employed in a restaurant. Upon arrival, the victim was instructed to work as a prostitute and hand over her earnings. The victim was able to contact her mother after some days, and her mother reported the case to NAPTIP.
The Director-General of NAPTIP, Dame Julie Okah-Donli who laud the efforts of the judiciary in ensuring that justice is secured urged victims to report cases of human trafficking and exploitation to NAPTIP as the agency is ready to fight to ensure that they get justice.
She reminded the members of the public that internal trafficking is as real as external trafficking, as young Nigerians are moved from the rural areas to urban cities for exploitative prostitution while warning perpetrators to desist from such acts as the arm of the law will catch up with them.
