Mother, son jailed for child trafficking:
In her judgment, Justice Victoria Agishi, granted the
accused persons an option to pay N20,000 fines each.
Agishi held that ``in consideration and having been aware of
the incidence of sickness, I have decided to tamper justice with mercy.
“The accused persons should pay a fine of N20,000 each but
in case of default will go to jail for three months,” Agishi said.
The woman, Elizabeth Uzor, 45, and Ogochukwu Uzor, 29, were
convicted following a failed attempt to traffic one Queen Okolo, 16, to Lagos for prostitution.
The accused persons pleaded guilty to an amended and
substituted charge of conspiracy and child trafficking.
A prosecution witness and staff of the National Agency for
the Prohibition and Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, Mr John Uguaka, narrated to
the court how the accused persons were arrested.
Uguaka said that NAPTIP had received a petition that the two
accused persons attempted to indulge in the act.
``I was detailed to investigate the case. The two accused
persons volunteered their statements under caution and admitted committing the
offence,” Uguaka said.
The prosecution, Mr Aigbeze Uhimnen, urged the court to
convict them based on their confessional statements.
The defence counsel, Mr Daniel Nwokolo, however, urged the
court to tamper justice with mercy on the grounds of ill health of the first
accused.
Nwokolo told the court that the accused persons were first
offenders and had no antecedents of criminality.
``The first accused person on the day of first arraignment
fell down here in the court and had a total paralyses in the full glare of
litigants and others present. She has been on bed since then, she was even
helped to the court today.
``If the second accused person who happens to be her son is
sent to jail the mother will die. I am praying the court to caution and
discharge them based on this grounds,” Nwokolo said.
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