1st June, 2023
By Jethro Ibileke
A Belgian police detective, William Hendrick, has testified in a human trafficking suit preferred against a Benin City, Edo State-based grandma, Mrs. Felicia Osaigbovo.
The 62-year-old suspect of Okuarobo Street, St. Saviour Road, Benin City, was docked before Justice Geraldine Imadegbelo in a 24-count charge bothering on trafficking of young girls to Europe for prostitution.
The unprecedented suit between the Federal Government of Nigeria and Felicia Osaigbovo, also known as Mama Masha, is numbered B/NAPTIP/4/2021/A,
In effort to ensure that the suspect is brought to justice, the Belgian police detective had to fly all the way from Brussels to testify against the suspect.
Hendrik told the court that three of the woman’s children, Aigbe Egberanmen, Aigbe Daniel and Osaigbovo Nathaniel, were sentenced to various prison terms in Belgium.
According to him, Aigbe Egberanmen who was sentenced to six years imprisonment, will have to cough out €108,000, while Aigbe Daniel who was jailed five years, was fined €108,000, while Osaigbovo Nathaniel bagged five years imprisonment and also fined of €48,000.
The Belgian policeman further stated that the suspect could have been tried in absentia in Belgium, based on the overwhelming evidence sourced from the several victims who escaped from the prostitution ring and officially told stories of how Mrs. Osaigbovo, who also goes by the alias, Mama of Juliet, recruited them in Benin City and took them to Europe for sexual exploitation and prostitution.
The suspect was charged with assisting the activities of persons engaged in acts of trafficking in persons contrary to section 13(4)c of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015.
The Belgian who was cross examined by the counsel to the defendant painted a graphic picture of how Nigerian girls who were recruited to Belgium and other European countries dressed almost naked, standing right by their windows and in private clubs, soliciting for customers.
The age of the victims who numbered 24 ranges from 14 to 23 and were trafficked in March 2015 by Mama Masha from Benin to her children, Juliet Egberanmwen Aigbe and Osaigbovo Nathaniel based in Antwerp, Belgium, for prostitution.
The Belgian detective defended his Nigerian trip, insisting that human trafficking does not end in Belgium and Europe and so must be tackled to the roots whether in Nigeria or elsewhere, adding that the young victims who were rescued have been resettled and are now engaged in legitimate businesses in Belgium.
After conferring with counsel the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Mrs. Victoria Okanigbuan and that of the defendant, Mr. O. I. Asemota, Justice Imadegbelo adjourned the case to 14 June, 2023.