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Calabar: Court jails 47-year-old man for sexually exploiting two minors

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A Federal High Court sitting in Calabar has sentenced a 47-year-old security guard, Obinna Andrew, to 16 years in imprisonment with the option of N3m fine for sexually exploiting two minors.

While delivering the judgment, Justice Simon Amobeda said it was to serve as a deterrent to others who were contemplating committing similar crime at a time the rate of sexual exploitation of minors was increasing in the society.

The judge added that since the convict was a first-time offender and pleaded guilty without wasting the time of the court, the court gave him some considerations.

“This judgment will run from the day of the convict’s arrest,” the judge said.

Immediately he sentenced Andrew, Amobeda called on the prison warders to take the convict away, adding that he was now in their hands.

The prosecuting counsel, Mr Nduka Nwanwenne, who spoke with journalists, said the convict was first arraigned on February 26, 2020, and was sentenced on June 30 for violating the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015.

Nwanwenne, who is also the Uyo Zonal Commander National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons (NAPTIP), said the convict was arraigned on a four-count charge in contravention of sections 15 and 16, subsection 1 of the Trafficking in Persons Act which deals with harbouring and sexually assaulting minors.

According to him:

“Andrew took two girls that were stranded into an apartment which was actually at the High Court Judges’ Quarters here in Calabar.

“There he sexually exploited them after inducing them with Indian hemp and even invited his friends to equally do the same thing.

“One of the girls, however, pretended to want to ease herself, went out and jumped over the fence into the compound of a judge, just tying a towel and there she was apprehended. That was what led to the arrest and subsequent prosecution of the convict.”

He said the Director-General of NAPTIP, Mrs Julie Donli, has zero tolerance for issues of exploitation and trafficking and it was because of that that the convict was prosecuted within a short time.

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