A
36-year old Nigerian mother of one, Franka Asemota, was last week
arrested in Benin City, the Edo state capital, and extradited to the
United Kingdom.
She was accused of being Ring Leader of an International child sex smuggling gang.
The
arrest which was carried out by men of the National Agency for the
Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) who has been working with the
National Crime Agency of the UK since 2011 took place at a fancy shop
located neat New Benin market in Benin City, believed to be proceeds of
money laundering.
Police sources is that she
accompanied about 40 victims of sex trafficking on eight separate
flights into Heathrow airport, London, UK, between 2011 and 2012.
The
lady who is facing extradition to Britain, where she is wanted for
organising a network that trafficked young women — most aged under 18 —
from remote Nigerian villages into Europe using Heathrow airport as a
transit hub.
The
girls were promised education or jobs such as hairdressing in such
European countries as France, Belgium, and Spain but were forced into
prostitution.
Others
were raped under oaths even as their traffickers were said to have used
witchcraft to terrify them that their parents would be killed, so they
would not talk to police or attempt to escape.
A
European arrest warrant was issued for her from the UK, when she was
thought to be in Italy but she it was later discovered that she has
relocated to Nigeria, where the NCA working with NAPTIP and the Nigerian
Police traced her.
The
UK-based NCA said: “Asemota’s arrest was the result of exceptional
collaboration with our partners at home and in Nigeria” adding, “This
operation demonstrates our global reach and our determination to track
those wanted in the UK, no matter where in the world they are.”
Asemota’s
arrest may have been aided by the whistle blown by a Nigerian member of
the trafficking ring, Odosa Usiobaifo, of Enfield, UK, who was jailed
for 14 years by Isleworth crown court in 2013 for conspiring to traffic
for sex exploitation.
In
October 2014, David Osawaru, another Nigerian, was jailed for nine
years for chaperoning two women in transit to Prague, Czech Republic. He
had been arrested by Border Force officers at Heathrow.#
No comments:
Post a Comment