A Federal High Court sitting in Damaturu, Yobe State, has convicted and sentenced a 20 year old man, Dauda Umaru, to seven years in prison for procuring and having sexual intercourse with a 16 year old girl.
Details of the Court Verdict
The judgment was delivered by Justice Aisha Y. Salihu at Court 2 of the Federal High Court in Damaturu. The court found Umaru guilty of offenses that violate Section 16(1) of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015, as amended.
Along with the custodial sentence, the judge ordered the convict to pay a total sum of N1.5 million. The monetary penalty includes N1 million to be remitted into the Victim Trust Fund Account and N500,000 directly assigned as compensation to the victim. Failure to pay the specified financial restitution will result in an extra seven months of imprisonment for the convict.
NAPTIP Reaffirms Anti-Trafficking Crackdown
The details of the judgment were made public through an official statement published on Wednesday by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) via its social media handle.
The agency also highlighted another recent conviction secured in the state as part of its ongoing campaign against sexual exploitation and human trafficking. In that separate trial, Justice Aisha Ndume of High Court Court 10 sentenced 37 year old Fatima Sanda to two years in prison for procuring a 16 year old girl for sexual exploitation. Sanda was similarly instructed to pay N500,000 in compensation to her victim.