NAPTIP: Court jails 2 for defilement, traficking of 8-year-old girl

A Federal High Court in Enugu has convicted Ernest Obieze and Ferdinand Okechukwu for unlawful trafficking of an eight-year-old girl and having carnal knowledge of her.

The convicted persons were sentenced to five-year jail term each with additional fine of N100, 000 each.

They are also to serve additional 3 years in prison if they fail to pay the fine. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAP TIP), Enugu Zonal Command had arrested the convicts in 2013 and arraigned them on a seven-count charge, following a tip-off by some good samaritans.

In his judgment on the matter, Justice D. V Agishi, held that the prosecuting NAPTIP had successfully proved a case of having unlawful carnal knowledge and procurement for unlawful carnal knowledge preferred against the two accused persons. The judge consequently pronounced them guilty and sentenced them accordingly.

Commenting on the development, Director – General of NAPTIP, Dame Julie Okah – Donli, commended the court for the landmark judgment, saying that the convicts deserved the punishment.

She said, “I commend the court for the judgment. I want to sound this as a warning to those evil-minded fellows who take delight in procuring our promising children for prostitution or any other unlawful activities that NAPTIP is gradually closing in on them.

“We have intensified our surveillance efforts as well as other intelligence gathering mechanisms to ensure that our children are safe wherever they are in Nigeria and beyond.

“I also want to appeal to Nigerians to join hands with NAPTIP to expose these questionable people whose sole interest is to procure traffic and exploit our children thereby denying them the opportunity of becoming what they want to become. This is why we must key into the whistleblowing policy of the Agency to expose the traffickers”.

Peter Fowoyo