&w=64&q=75)
A Nigerian couple has bagged lengthy prison terms in South Africa after being convicted of human trafficking and operating a brothel.
The couple, consisting of 34-year-old Jude Ikenna Ijegulu, and his 29-year-old partner, Elizabeth Botes, received their sentences in the Pretoria High Court.
The convicts were found guilty of running a brothel in Centurion in Pretoria for 10 months between 2016 and 2017, where they kept two women.
The husband was said to have forcefully had carnal knowledge of the women while also supplying them with drugs.
Therefore, Ijegulu was sentenced to two life for two counts of rape and additional two years for being in the Rainbow Nation illegally.
This was according to a report by state-owned media, South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
SABC reported on its news bulletin on Saturday, June 15, 2024, that the court had ordered Ijegulu's name be added to the National Register of Sexual Offenders.
In his reaction, the National Prosecuting Authority’s Gauteng spokesperson, Lumka Mahanjana, says they welcome the sentences.
“From November 2016 to September 2017 the two ran a brothel in Centurion where they kept two women. The man raped the two women, supplied them with drugs as well as physically and sexually assaulting them.
The couple would also instruct the two victims to render sexual services to clients. The Judge found that the two violated the Human Trafficking Act. The man enslaved the two victims and fed them drugs,” he said.