Franca Asemota, the Nigerian accused of smuggling young girls into Europe for prostitution, was on Thursday sentenced to 22 years imprisonment by a UK court.
Read also: (NIGERIAN FACES JAIL AFTER ADMITTING MAKING FALSE RAPE CLAIM AGAINST HER COUNTRYMAN)
Asemota was in January extradited from Nigeria to the UK to face trial for offences bordering on trafficking of minors.
And on Wednesday, the Edo-born woman was found guilty of eight counts of conspiracy to traffic people into sexual exploitation by a jury at Isleworth Crown Court.
The 38-year-old had escaped justice for three years after she fled the UK for Nigeria in 2012 when her co-conspirators were arrested. One of them, Odosa Usiobaifo, is currently serving a 14-year prison sentence after being jailed in 2013.
She was declared wanted by the National Crime Agency of the UK.
And in March 2015, located in Nigeria where she was extradited to the UK after Justice Abdul Kafarati of the Federal High Court on January 13, 2016, ordered her extradition to the UK following a request through the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).
‘Asemota was the lynch-pin of a trafficking ring which targeted vulnerable young women in Nigeria, promising them a brighter future working in Europe.
‘But it soon became clear that this was far from the truth. The victims, some as young as 13, were told they would be sold into prostitution.
‘Asemota traveled with the girls in order to threaten them and keep them in line,’ David Fairclough, of the Immigration Enforcement crime team, said at her trial.
