Man bags 3-year jail term for human trafficking

Justice Peter Lifu, sitting at the Federal High Court, Lagos, has convicted and sentenced a 34-year-old man, Isaiah Dickson, to three years imprisonment for human trafficking. The court found the convict, a father of two kids, guilty of charges of conspiracy and organised foreign travel which promotes prostitution. The convict, alongside a 46-year-old woman, Margaret […]

Justice Peter Lifu, sitting at the Federal High Court, Lagos, has convicted and sentenced a 34-year-old man, Isaiah Dickson, to three years imprisonment for human trafficking.

The court found the convict, a father of two kids, guilty of charges of conspiracy and organised foreign travel which promotes prostitution.

The convict, alongside a 46-year-old woman, Margaret Ibritam Emabong, were arraigned before the court by National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), sometime in 2018, for conspiracy and trafficking one Rita Ezinne Lawrence, to Burkina Faso and Morocco, for prostitution.

Both the convict and Emabong, of 14, Olalubi Street, Mafoluku Oja, Oshodi, where they resided, as at the time of their arrest, were alleged to commit the offences alongside one Alhaji, said to be at large, since January 2018.

The offences, according to the prosecutor, Becky Jibo, are contrary to section 18, 13(2)(b) and 27(b) of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015 and punishable under the same section of the Act.

The convict and Emabong had pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were first arraigned.

Upon their not guilty plea, they were admitted to bail, but they were unable to perfect the bail conditions, hence they have been in the custody of Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS) since 2018.

However, midway to their trial, the convict, changed his plea and pleaded guilty to the two-count charges of conspiracy and trafficking in person brought against him, while his co-defendant, Emabong, maintained her not guilty plea.

Justice Lifu, therefore, convicted him and while considering the period the convict had been in custody, ordered that the jail term commenced from May 20, 2018, when he was first arraigned.

Meanwhile, further trial of his accomplice, Emabong, has been adjourned till March 3, 2022.