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47-yr-old guard sentenced to 16 years in prison for exploiting two minors

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Court remands 51-yr-old Polytechnic lecturer for rape, murder of 13-yr-old girl

A 47-year-old security guard, Obinna Andrew has been sentenced to 16 years in prison with an option of paying N3 million fine for sexually exploiting two minors in Calabar.

Andrew was sentenced on Wednesday by a Federal High Court, Calabar presided over by Justice Simon Amobeda, who said the sentence was to serve as a deterrent to others, who were contemplating committing a similar crime at a time that the rate of sexual exploitation of minors was increasing in the society.

According to the judge, since the convict was a first time offender and pleaded guilty without wasting the time of the court, he had to give him some considerations.

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

While speaking on the judgment, the prosecuting counsel, Mr Nduka Nwanwenne, said the convict was first arraigned on February 26, 2020, and was sentenced for violating the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015.

Read also: Teacher, stepfather land in Kirikiri for defiling minors

Nwanwenne, who doubles as the Uyo Zonal Commander of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), said the convict was arraigned on four counts in contravention of sections 15 and 16, subsection 1 of the Trafficking in Persons Act, which dealt with harbouring and sexually assaulting minors.

He further revealed that Andrew took the victims, who were stranded, into an apartment in the High Court Judges’ Quarters in Calabar.

Nwanwenne stated: “There in the apartment, Andrew sexually exploited the girls after inducing them with Indian hemp and he even invited his friends to also 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, while just tying a towel and she was apprehended. That was what led to the arrest and subsequent prosecution of the convict.”

Nwanwenne further stated that the Director-General of NAPTIP, Mrs Julie Okah-Donli, had zero tolerance for issues of exploitation and trafficking, hence the speed with which the convict was prosecuted within a short time.

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