TRAFFICKING: UK COURT CONVICTS NIGERIAN COUPLE

A jury at Cardiff Crown Court, United Kingdom, has found guilty a Nigerian woman of people trafficking after she forced two Nigerian women into prostitution by making them eat snakes in an African black magic ceremony. The 24-year-old convict, Lizzy Idahosa, and her husband, Jackson Omoruyi, 41, made more than £70,000 out of the women, who were terrified with voodoo and made to see a witchdoctor for a sinister ‘juju’ ceremony.
Both are now facing jail after Idahosa was convicted of trafficking the women, inciting them to become prostitutes and transferring criminal property, while Omoruyi was found guilty of money laundering.

During the couple’s trial at Cardiff Crown Court, according to MailOnline, the jury was told that the two victims, aged 23 and 29, had their pubic hair shaved and forced to eat live snakes and snails as part of the ritual, and then flown to Britain in the belief that they were going to find a better life. However, when they arrived in the UK they were put to work as prostitutes, working in brothels at massage parlours across England and Wales.

They were told they had to give all the money they earned to Idahosa, and believed the black magic curses would make them go insane or die if they refused. “The couple were involved in the exploitation of two women brought into the UK from Nigeria to work as prostitutes,” said Caroline Rees, prosecuting, during the trial. “They were bound to this by something called a juju ritual. It was a ceremonial ritual used to full effect to terrify both women into doing what was demanded of them. “It was used to ensure compliance, secrecy, and they believed if they broke the bond dire consequences would follow: illness, madness, infertility or death.

“They genuinely believed the powers would work,” Rees added. The offences came to light after police arrested a 23-year-old Nigerian woman at the Ambassador Suite brothel in Cardiff, in June 2013. She told officers she had been living rough in Nigeria after her mother died and had wanted to travel to the UK to find her father. She had then met a woman, claiming to be Idahosa’s sister, who promised to make arrangements for her to travel to London, and as part of the agreement had to take part in the ceremony. “She did not know what was expected of her,” said Rees, who said the woman had been able to pass through immigration at Heathrow. “She was taken to premises full of women dressed in their underwear.

There was no explanation as to what was going on but it soon became clear,” she said. The woman started to work as a prostitute and was forced to have sexual intercourse with seven or eight men every day, working in brothels across the UK, including in Cardiff and Swansea. When interviewed, she claimed she had given Idahosa £45,000.
Source: New Telegraph