A 28-year-old prostitute, Vivian Francis, has been sentenced to one year imprisonment with an option of N125,000 for trafficking three of her teenage siblings for prostitution by a Benin High Court, Edo State.
National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic In Persons and other related matters (NAPTIP) Zonal Commander, Mrs Ijeoma Uduak, said the convict lured the victims – aged 15, 17, 18 – from Cross River State to Benin on the pretence that she was going to secure jobs for them.
Vivian was arrested at a popular hotel in Benin at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown and she confessed to the crime. In an interview with reporters, Vivian, who is from Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State, said she made a mistake by luring her siblings to Benin for prostitution.
“I did not know it was going to end up this way. I just felt they should keep themselves busy in Benin that was why I fixed them in that I pray that others should not make the kind of mistake I made,”she said remorsefully.
