Anambra woman jailed 21 years for child labour

A Magistrate’s Court sitting in Awka, Anambra State, on Wednesday sentenced a 35-year-old woman, Success James, to prison for child labour and abduction of female minors for prostitution in the state.

The presiding magistrate, Genevieve Osakwe, found James guilty of seven charges of the eight-count preferred against him.

Delivering the sentence, Osakwe, who found James guilty, sentenced her to five years imprisonment for count one, five years imprisonment for count two, two years for count three, four years for count four, two years for count five, two years for count seven, while count eight was for a one-year prison term.

Osakwe added that all the sentences should run concurrently with no option of fine.

The convict was apprehended in Onitsha, Anambra State, in December 2022, and arraigned before the court in Awka, for abducting four teenage girls from Akwa Ibom State and using them for child labour.

The four teenage girls were later rescued by officials of the state Ministry for Women and Social Welfare, on December 23, 2022.

The victims had said they were taken by the suspect, who promised to secure jobs for them in Agbor, Delta State, where they would be selling drinks in a beer parlour, but on getting there, they discovered that it was prostitution work they were brought to do.

Reacting, the state Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare Commissioner, Ify Obinabo, while expressing happiness with the judgment, revealed that the children had been enrolled in school and had also been learning skills of their choice at the state skills acquisition centre in Awka.

(TNT)