A Federal High Court sitting in Enugu State has three
convicted persons for various child trafficking offences.
The convicts, Ifeoma Obidike, Hope Duru and Blessing
Jacob were arraigned by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking
In Persons (NAPTIP).
The first defendant, 28 years old Ifeoma Obidike, was
arraigned for employing a 10 years old boy as a domestic worker and subjecting
him to abuse and exploitation, and also renting two one-year olds from Hope
Duru and Blessing Jacob, who were the second and third defendants respectively.
The convicted persons, who were members of a cartel
which was cracked down by NAPTIP in
Enugu after due surveillance, specialised in using children for street-begging,
subjecting them to various forms of exploitation and inflicting bodily harm on
them.
The case, which was referred to NAPTIP by the Nigeria
Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), was presided over by the Honourable
Justice Rosemary Dugbo Oghoghorie.
While delivering her judgment, the Honourable Judge
sentenced the first defendant to three years imprisonment, while the second and
third defendants were sentenced to two years imprisonment each.
The Director-General of NAPTIP, Dame Julie Okah-Donli,
warned against the use of children for alms-begging on the streets of Nigeria.
The NAPTIP boss made this admonition while reacting to
the conviction of the convicts.
Okah-Donli decried the heartless manner in which
Nigerians use babies to solicit for alms on the streets, endangering the lives
of these children and exposing them to various hazardous conditions.
She called on members of the public to be aware of
their environments, and report such cases to NAPTIP, assuring them of adequate
prosecution. Perpetrators were further warned to desist from such act, as it is
not only shameful and inhuman, it will also lead them to jail.
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