Anambra state Woman sentenced to 21-year imprisonment for coercing 4 minors into prostitution.

Success James, age 35, was found guilty of child labor, child exploitation, kidnapping, and child snatching and was sentenced to prison by the Children, Sexual, and Gender-Based Violence Chief Magistrate Court in Awka, Anambra State.

The defendant was previously detained in Onitsha and charged in December 2022 for kidnapping four young girls and using them for child labor and sexual exploitation before the Chief Magistrate Court in Awka.

In December 2022, the young girls were rescued by police officers working with the Anambra State Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Hon Ify Obinabo.

All of the victims, who were between the ages of 13 and 15, were from Akwa Ibom State, and they were saved during a raid on a brothel in Delta State that the convict owned and ran.

The defendant was charged with conspiracy, as well as additional offenses involving child labor, sexual exploitation, and child stealing, and was found guilty of seven of the eight counts by the presiding court.

Delivering judgement on the case, the Presiding Chief Magistrate, Genevieve Osakwe found Success James guilty of count 1 and sentenced her to 5 years imprisonment; count 2 attracted 5 years imprisonment; she was slammed 2 years imprisonment in count 3; count 4 was 4 years imprisonment; 2 years imprisonment in count 5; in count 7, she was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment, while count 8 attracted 1 year imprisonment.

However, the Chief Magistrate ruled that there would be no choice for a fine and that all sentences would run consecutively.

The victims testified in separate testimony before the Honourable Court that they were tricked into the prostitution business by an aunty named Success who claimed to have a job opportunity for them in Agbor, Delta state, where they would be selling drinks in a beer parlor. However, when they arrived in Agbor, they realized that the work they had been brought in for was prostitution.

The Women and Social Welfare Commissioner, Hon. Obinabo, responded to the verdict by expressing satisfaction with the swiftness of the case’s trial and revealing that the children had been enrolled in school, while those who preferred learning skills acquisition had begun doing so at the state-owned Skills Acquisition Center in Awka.

Further reprimanding that the Anambra state government would not put up with such atrocities, Hon. Obinabo vowed to keep up the fight for equal justice for women and children in the state anytime their rights were violated.