NAPTIP
Edo State Command of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic In Persons and other related matters (NAPTIP) have apprehended Francis Vivian for trafficking three of her siblings from Cross River State to Edo State.
The 28-year-old Vivian lured the three teenage girls aged 18,17 and 15 to Benin city under the pretences of securing jobs for them.
Mrs Ijeoma Uduak , the zonal commander of NAPTIP, in a statement said that Francis Vivian was arrested during the COVID-19 in a popular hotel. She confirmed that Vivian confessed to the crime, punishable under Section 13 of the NAPTIP act.
Vivian Francis appeared in the State High Court 3, Criminal Division before Justice Isoken Erameh where she pleaded guilty . As a first time offender, she was sentenced to 1 year in prison with an option of N125,000 fine .
“We clamped down on the convict during the COVID-19 lockdown at a popular hotel in Benin. She confessed to going to Cross River State to bring the three girls, who were aged 15, 17, and 18. She told them that she had secured pub attendant jobs for them, but when they got to Benin, she started using them for prostitution and collecting the proceeds”
Vivian Francis appeared in the State High Court 3, Criminal Division before Justice Isoken Erameh where she pleaded guilty . As a first time offender, she was sentenced to 1 year in prison with an option of N125,000 fine .
Uduak’s statement continued,
“She was arrested and charged for violating Section 13 of the NAPTIP Act. She pleaded guilty and was convicted and sentenced to one-year imprisonment with an option of N125,000 fine.”
She added that the three girls have been returned to their families in Cross River state.