Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has sentenced two women, Patience Jaja and Blessing Emmanuel, to two years’ imprisonment each over child trafficking, prostitution of girls in Port Harcourt.
The court found them guilty of keeping the girls in a brothel.
The presiding judge, Patricia Ajoku, in her judgement, found them guilty of the charges.
Justice Ajoku said the sentence would serve as a deterrent to human traffickers in the state.
The two were arraigned by the Rivers State Command of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons.
The state NAPTIP Commander, Amaka Ikediashi, while speaking to journalists, said the convicts were involved in forced prostitution of some girls and minors who were kept in a brothel.
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Ikediashi said NAPTIP, alongside its partners, arrested the two women and rescued the girls.
The magistrate stated that the rule that the author of a document had to tender it was not absolute. She then admitted the petition as an exhibit.
The prosecutor also led the victim, Kendra, in evidence.
Kendra stated, “I was in the bedroom with my children on the bed with a long shirt on and nothing underneath. All of a sudden, the defendant barged in and started beating me, while his two brothers joined him to beat me.
“My husband’s elder brother removed the wrapper that was covering me. Upon seeing my nakedness, he started beating me the more, as though he got angrier. The nanny had to throw a trouser at me to put on because I was bare from my waist downwards.”
She added that the siblings went to drag her brother, Nwogu, and beat him up as well.
The case was adjourned till August 12, 2022 for further hearing.
They were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment each without an option of fine,” she added.