The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Trafficker

  • NAPTIP nabs Dubai-based human trafficker at Abuja airport

    NAPTIP nabs Dubai-based human trafficker at Abuja airport

    The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has arrested a convicted human trafficker at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

    According to NAPTIP, the trafficker is the arrowhead of an international human trafficking network operating across the Middle Eastern countries with an operational base in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Dubai.

    The agency also said the trafficker, Uadiale Christiana Jacob a.k.a. Christy Evan Osagie or Christy Gold had been on its wanted list in the last five years.

    She is said to be a senior member of an organised human trafficking syndicate notorious for the recruiting, trafficking and sexually exploiting underage Nigerian girls in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

    She was said to have been arrested by officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) on duty at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja on December 31, 2024 on arrival from Dubai for the new year celebration and handed over to NAPTIP.

    A statement issued by NAPTIP’s Press Officer in Abuja, Vincent Adekoye, yesterday said her suspected accomplices, Michael Nduka, Osas Wiseman, Vivian and a certain Prophet John in Lagos, along with others, are field officers who assist in the recruitment and subsequent transfer of victims to Christy Gold, and were still on the run.

    Revealing how Christiana was arrested, the agency said: “It would be recalled that on the 18th March, 2020, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Ikeja Airport Command shared intelligence with NAPTIP Joint Border Task Force/Benin Satellite Office (JBTF/BSO) in respect of one Uadiale Christiana Jacob a.k.a. Christy Evan Osagie a.k.a. Christy Gold of No 15 Osagie Street, Off 2nd Power Line, Egbon Estate, Benin City, Edo State. 

    “Uadiale Christiana Jacob, popularly known as Christy Gold, is a senior member of an organised human trafficking syndicate notorious for the recruitment, trafficking and sexually exploiting of underage Nigerian girls in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

    “Following the agency’s investigation into the alleged offence to establish culpability, Christiana Uadiale Jacob was arrested by NAPTIP in Ikpoba Hill area, Benin City on the 13th of October, 2020 for her involvement in the trafficking of underage Nigerian girls to Dubai, United Arab Emirates for forced prostitution.

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    “She was charged to the Federal High Court, Asaba, Delta State on the 25th of November 2020, where she was granted bail.

    “While on court bail, Christiana Uadiale Jacob violated the terms of the bail and absconded to Dubai.

    “After failing several times to appear before the court, a Bench Warrant was therefore issued by the sitting Judge on the 3rd of November, 2021 for her arrest.”

    The statement continues: “To get Christiana Uadiale Jacob to face justice for her crimes, NAPTIP sought the assistance and collaboration of the Honourable Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, National Central Bureau (NCB), INTERPOL Nigeria, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and the United Arab Emirates Police for her arrest and extraction to Nigeria.

    “Even while she tried to evade justice, NAPTIP did not relent, and as a result of our diligent prosecution of the case, Christiana Uadiale Jacob was convicted for human trafficking in absentia by Honourable Justice F. A. Olubanjo of the Federal High Court, Asaba, Delta State on the 21st of March, 2024 with sentencing being awaited whenever she is rearrested and brought before the Honourable Court.

    “Luck, however, ran out on her on the 31st of December 2024, as Officers Nigeria Immigration Service acting in respect of NAPTIP’s request for watchlisting dated 22nd February 2023, nabbed her on arrival in Nigeria.”

    The Director General of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, lauded the efforts of the Nigerian Immigration Service for apprehending the fleeing human trafficking convict, saying that it was a commendable demonstration of inter-agency collaboration. She said the convict would be taken to the court for sentencing.

    She also promised to make 2025 hell for all human traffickers.

    She said: “I want to specially thank our sister law enforcement agency, the NIS, for the arrest of the convict.

    “I recall that a few weeks ago, I visited the Comptroller General of NIS and the outcome of that advocacy visit is this improved synergy and very efficient collaboration.

    “NAPTIP also appreciates the efforts of other members of the intelligence community who are working behind the scenes to apprehend these fellows.

    “The convict that has been arrested and convicted will surely be taken to the court to face the sentence by the law.

    “This is a clear message to other members of this international criminal gang who are still on the run: they can only hide for a while; they can never hide forever.

    “We have already activated all necessary security and intelligence apparatus, and our partners around the world are on the lookout for these elements.

    “Very soon, the net will catch them.

    “I am happy it was a sad end for human traffickers in the country in 2024, and we promise them hell in 2025.

    “We are more determined and will be more decisive this year to fish them out and ensure the protection of Nigerians from trafficking, exploitation and violence against persons.”

  • I started stealing babies after my own children were stolen, convicted trafficker confesses

    I started stealing babies after my own children were stolen, convicted trafficker confesses

    A 23-year-old woman, Nzube Robert Chukwu, has revealed how she started stealing babies and selling them after her own two male children were stolen.

    The single mother was last week convicted by an Ebonyi State Magistrate’s Court for involvement in the child theft business in Abakaliki.

    She revealed that she got a share of N40,000.00 from each of the proceeds of any baby she stole.

    Nzube explained that her duty was to steal the babies while a bus driver identified as Ofunwa sold them.

    She revealed that the last N40,000 shares she got on the illicit sale of a baby was spent on the purchase of clothes and body cream.

    The convict fingered her suitor in the disappearance of her two children, a situation that paved the way for her to join the illegal child stealing business.

    She said: “I joined a child stealing business after losing my two children in 2021. As a single mother, I was looking forward to getting married. So, in 2021, a man saw me and started wooing me for marriage, not knowing that his interest was to steal my babies.

    “When my children disappeared, he stopped visiting and packed out of his known residence. Shortly after, a man popularly called Ofunwa, living at Chukwu Street, Abakaliki, met me when I was a sales girl at Margaret Umahi International Market Abakaliki and introduced me to the business of child stealing.

    “When I get the babies, I hand them over to Ofunwa for him to sell and after the transaction; he gives me N40,000 from the proceeds. I don’t know where he sold them and how much he made. The last N40,000 he gave me, I used it to buy clothes and body cream,” she narrated.

    Nzube, a native of Umuimam in Oshiri Onicha Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, explained that luck ran out on her when the last baby she stole from her friend started crying uncontrollably, a situation that drew the attention of neighbours before she was arrested.

    She said: “I was caught as the baby was crying uncontrollably at the Convent Road axis of Abakaliki on my way to my house. The girl I stole her baby from is my friend, Ifeoma, who lives at Onichaegu Street, Mgboagbaja towards Hill Top.

    “She is a single mother of four. She leaves her babies in my custody whenever she goes for a night job. I warned her to take better care of her children but she ignored my advice. The day I stole the baby, she was not around while the children were sleeping; their door was wide open.

    “I planned to take the baby to my house and take her to Ofunwa, a bus driver who plies Abakaliki-Enugu-Onicha, the next day. But the cry of the baby was too much as it attracted people’s attention and they started beating and questioning me; from there, I was taken to a police officer, CSP Onuebonyi.”

    After the completion of the investigation, the police arraigned Nzube at a Magistrate’s Court sitting in Abakaliki.

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    The charge sheet read: “That you Nzube Robert Chukwu, aged 23 and others now at large on the 29th day of August 2023 at Mgbo-Agbaja in Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State in the jurisdiction of this honourable court did conspire amongst yourselves to commit felony to wit child stealing and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 516A (a) of the criminal code cap 33 volume 1 laws of Ebonyi State of Nigeria 2009.

    “You unlawfully made away with a four-month-old baby girl without the consent of her parents and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 33 of Ebonyi State Child Rights Act and Related Offences law 2010.”

    Sequel to her guilty plea and recovery of the stolen baby, Chief Magistrate Lynda Ogodo, on October 16, 2023, sentenced Nzube to 36 calendar months imprisonment.

    Ogodo warned the convict to desist from evil acts and explained that the offence of child stealing attracts 10 years imprisonment but it was reduced to three years because Nzube saved the court’s time by pleading guilty upon arraignment.

  • Trafficker gets 12-year imprisonment, N24m fine

    Trafficker gets 12-year imprisonment, N24m fine

    An international human trafficker, Mrs. Felicia Osaigbovo, aka Mama Masha/Mama of Juliet, was yesterday sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, and fined N24 million by an Edo State High Court in Benin.

    Osaigbovo was arraigned on July 1, 2021 on 24 counts of aiding human trafficking, contrary to Section 13(4)c TIPPEA, 2015. She was also accused of organising foreign travels to promote prostitution, for 12 victims, currently in Belgium, contrary to Section 18 of TIPPEA, 2015.

    She however pleaded not guilty.

    The prosecution counsel, who tendered 13 exhibits, called three witnesses, including a Belgian police officer, Jimmy Wellem Hendrik, who flew in from Brussels on May 31 to testify. Hendrik told the court that three of the convict’s children, including Aigbe Egberanmen, who was earlier sentenced in Belgium to six years, would pay €108,000; Aigbe Daniel, also fined €108,000, was jailed five years, while Nathaniel Osaigbovo would spend five years at the correctional centre, and would pay a fine of €48,000.

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    The Belgian policeman said the convicts could have been tried in absentia in Belgium, based on evidence sourced from the victims who escaped and told stories of how Mrs. Osaigbovo recruited them in Benin, and took them to Europe for sexual exploitation and prostitution.

    Justice Geraldine Imadegbelo found Mrs. Osaigbovo guilty of all the 24 counts, and sentenced her to 12 years imprisonment and a fine of N24 million.

    The 24 victims, aged between 14 and 23, were trafficked in March 2015 by Mama Masha from Benin to her children – Juliet Egberanmwen Aigbe and Osaigbovo Nathaniel, based in Antwerp, Belgium, for prostitution.