A 42-year-old woman named Juliet Ukhurebor has been arrested for alleged human tr@fficking by the Edo State Taskforce on Human Tr@fficking.
She was arrested at her shrine in Benin City alongside an accomplice, Joy Osage. They were arrested following a petition by a 25-year-old girl, Rita Godwin.
According to the Secretary of the taskforce, Mrs Pauline Irusota, Ukhurebor in collaboration with her daughter in India, forged Ghanaian passports and other documents for the victims for the purpose of sm¥ggling them to India.
She explained that the prime suspect had already succeeded in sm¥ggling a girl identified as Juliet Osagie to India.
The task force’s Secretary stated that the prime suspect only revealed to the victims after taking oath that they were heading to India for pro§tit¥tion
She added that the petitioner on learning of the development refused to embark on the final journey to Abuja, en route India.
“Following the refusal of the petitioner to travel to India, the prime suspect, and a native doctor from Enugu State began issuing thr£@ts to the petitioner that she pay N8 million, being the money used to process her traveling documents.
The prime suspect was arrested at her shrine, and a native pot containing concoctions was recovered as exhibit at the request of the investigators,” she said.
Speaking in an interview, the prime suspect, Mrs Juliet Ukhurebor said she made her victims swear on oath before travelling out of the country in order to deter them from refusing to obey instructions.
Ukhurebor, said the oath taking was just to thr£@ten the victims not to abscond or behave funny while with her daughter in India.
According to her, “I acted on the instructions of my India-based-daughter, who requested a female nanny from Nigeria to administer an oath on the victims.
My daughter asked them to take oath because she spent money on the would-be nannies travel documents, so that they would not get there and abscond, or refuse to pay her the expenses she incurred on their documents.”
