Pastor jailed for 14 years for luring young girls into prostitution

Prostitutes

A Federal High Court sitting at Ikeja, this morning sentenced the General Overseer of Christ Redemption Apostolic Church, Pastor Eunice Owoyele to 14 years imprisonment for child trafficking.

Her church is situated at 15, Olaoye Ogunyemi Street, Off Powerline, Ikorodu, Lagos, southwest Nigeria.
Also sentenced along with Pastor Eunice Owoyele, 40, is one of her accomplices, Mariam Mohammed, a.k.a. Mama Blessing, 50. Mariam will also stay behind bars for 14 years.
They were jailed for luring an 18-year old girl from Nigeria to Libya for prostitution.

The offence was committed in August 2010 in Lagos.
The two convicts were arraigned before the court on 4 February this year on a three count criminal charge of organising foreign travels for young girls for prostitution abroad especially in Libya,
procurement for prostitution and deceitful inducement to go from place to place contrary to section 15a, 16 and 19 b of NAPTIP Act.

In the case, the prosecuting lawyer, Mr. Kehinde Falade called four witnesses while the convicts who testified for themselves were led in evidence by their lawyer, Mr. R.O. Akande.

The mother of the victim reported to NAPTIP when her daughter and her friend who were sent to Libya discovered that they were lured there for prostitution. The girl called her mother on phone to complain about her situation.

Consequently, NAPTIP contacted the Nigerian Embassy in Libya to repatriate the girl.

However, the whereabouts of the other victims have remained unknown.

The lawyer to the convicts, Mr. Akande pleaded for leniency as he urged the court to temper justice with mercy by giving his clients an option of fine.

But the presiding judge, Justice Stephen Jonah-Adah said the act under which the accused persons were convicted did not make any provision for fine.

Consequently, the convicts were sentenced to 14 years imprisonment each.