Nigerian woman bags 22-year jail term in UK for trafficking

Franca Asemota, a 38-year-old Nigerian woman, has bagged a 22-year jail term in the United Kingdom for transporting sex workers across Europe.

According to a press statement obtained, the woman was convicted of attempting to traffic Nigerian girls through Heathrow Airport.

It was gathered that the sex workers were made to work in brothels across Europe and on Thursday, August 4, bagged a 22-year jail term at the Isleworth Crown Court on eight counts of conspiracy to traffic persons for sexual exploitation, two counts of trafficking persons outside of the UK for sexual exploitation and two counts of assisting unlawful immigration.

According to the report, the woman was identified as a trafficking suspect in 2012 but ran to Nigeria from Italy when some of her cohorts were nabbed immigration investigators.

She was later tracked down to Nigeria by the National Crime Agency (NCA) after she had spent some time in Europe.

An officer from the immigration enforcement crime team, David Fairclough, explained what happened. He said: “Asemota was the lynchpin of a trafficking ring which targeted vulnerable young women in Nigeria, promising them a brighter future working in Europe.

“But it soon became clear that this was far from the truth. The victims, some as young as 13, were told they would be sold into prostitution. Asemota travelled with the girls in order to threaten them and keep them in line.

“Trafficking is a despicable crime, as this case shows. We work closely with our law enforcement colleagues internationally to identify the criminal gangs responsible and put them before the courts.”

Speaking on the matter, Martin French who heads the NCA’s UK Human Trafficking Centre noted that, “Franca Asemota and her criminal network took advantage of these vulnerable young women in some of the worst ways possible.

“They promised them a better life but in reality treated them as nothing more than a commodity to be sold into slavery.

“Asemota thought she could evade arrest by fleeing Europe and hiding in Nigeria. But the NCA’s partnerships give us global reach and mean international borders are no barrier to justice.

“This conviction is the result of many years of dogged investigation and co-operation between the NCA, Immigration Enforcement and our law enforcement colleagues both at home and overseas.”

It was also revealed that teenage girls in remote Nigerian villages were the target of the trafficker, some of whom had never been out of their home areas before, with a promise that they would work and study in Europe.

The girls were reportedly put on flights from Lagos to Heathrow between August 2011 and May 2012, having promised to take them to France.

Five of the convicted trafficker testified against her during the trial, stating that she was rescued from prostitution in Montpellier, France by the immigration enforcers and the NCA.

Facts have also emerged on how some secondary school girls were tricked into prostitution by a suspected human trafficker, Abigail Nweke Alo, who promised to take them to Lagos.

Findings by Vanguard revealed that the four schoolgirls, Charity Nkwogor, Felicia Nzuworgar, Angela Benjamin amd Patience Williams all between 17 and 18 years old, were forced into prostitution by the woman who owned a brothel in Calabar business area.

The girls said to all be from Okun and Vandeikya local government areas of Benue state, were said to have been taken from their homes in January to work as sales girls in a supposed drinking spot in Lagos, but they narrated how Abigail, the woman they referred to as Chairlady, ended up using them as sex workers.