Court Remands Mother, Daughter For Child Labour

Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Federal High Court in Lagos has remanded 25-year-old lady Olubube Nwobi and her 55-year-old mother, Ebele Nwobi, in prison for allegedly using two underage girls as domestic servants.

Justice Awogboro ordered that the mother and daughter be remanded at the Ikoyi Custodial Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Services after they were docked before her by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) on a four-count charge of harbouring and using two underage girls (name withheld) for domestic labour.

The defendants, whose address was in Abijoh GRA, Chois Garden Estate Lekki, Lagos State, were alleged to have committed the offences between May and November 2023.

The prosecutor, Uzunwa Egonu, told the judge that their unlawful and exploitative actions had exposed the two teenagers to physical, social and psychological trauma.

Egonu, a senior legal officer with NAPTIP, accused the defendants of assaulting two officials of the agency on March 12 at the agency’s office situated at No. 165b, Oba Ladejobi Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.

He claimed that the NAPTIP officials were assaulted in the course of performing their official duties by the two defendants: Ederibhalo Ajiegbe Elvis and Trust Oluwaseun Adekoye.

Egonu also told the court that during the assault of the officials, the two defendants allegedly had their laptop and an iPhone 8 damaged.