joshua
By Ikhili Ebalu, Benin City
A Benin High Court on Monday, sentenced Mother and children to 14 years imprisonment for procuring and trafficking a 19-year old girl to Russia for sexual exploitation.
The two siblings Mr. Endurance Ehiozee, 37, and Miss Vivian Ehiozee, 31, were sentenced to 14 years each without option of fine.
Mrs Helen Ehioze, their mother was sentenced to 10 year imprisonment.
The presiding Judge, Justice Geraldine Imadegbelo sentenced the convicts, after finding them guilty on their offenses which contravened sections 15 and 16 of the trafficking in person’s prohibition law, enforcement and administration act 2003 as amended in 2005.
The teenager (name withheld) was trafficked to Russia in 2012 when she was 19 years but the case in court started in 2017 with the said girl now 27 years old.
According to the prosecutor,
Mrs. Rosemary Emodogo. the sections deals with procurement of victims for prostitution and trafficking persons.
Counsel to the convicts Mr. J. Omigie had pleaded to the judge for a lenient sentence given the fact that the convicts were first offenders and had no prior criminal record.
The prosecutor counsel, Emodogo, however did not opposed the plea.
Meanwhile, the NAPTIP Benin zonal commander Mrs Ijeoma Uduak urged members of the public to abstain from the temptation of making ill money.
