Sentencing For Human Trafficker

PRESS RELEASE 
EMBARGO: IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: 29 APRIL 2021

THREE LIFE TERMS FOR A HUMAN TRAFFICKER 

The High Court of South Africa: Gauteng North, sitting in Benoni, sentenced a 44-year-old Nigerian man, Augustine Omini Obono, to three life imprisonment terms for human trafficking, rape, statutory rape and sexual exploitation of a 12-year-old girl. 

He was also found guilty and sentenced to three years for kidnapping and seven years for keeping a brothel. 

On 03 September 2016, while the minor was at a park in Derdepoort for a picnic with her friends, she met a woman who asked her to accompany her to a flat in Sunnyside, Pretoria where she will be meeting a man. The woman promised the minor that she would give her taxi money to go to Mamelodi the following morning. 

When they arrived at the flat in Sunnyside, the woman handed the minor over to Obono for purposes of sexual exploitation or for her to be used as a prostitute.  

Obono kept the minor in the flat for three months. During this period, he fed her drugs and forced her to have sex with between five to six men a day. In December 2016, the minor eventually managed to escape and went to her uncle’s place in Mamelodi.

When she arrived, she informed her uncle of what had happened. The uncle reported the matter to the police and the minor pointed out the flat where she was kept. When the police went into the flat, they found Obono and arrested him and has been in custody since.  

The National Prosecuting Authority Sexual Offences and Community Affairs Unit referred the minor for counselling.

Advocate Roos asked the judge to impose the minimum prescribed sentence, saying that a defenceless child was held in captive by Obono and used as a sex slave while giving her drugs to control her. 

The NPA welcomed the sentence.  

Issued by
Lumka Mahanjana
NPA North Gauteng Regional Spokesperson: DPP Pretoria
lmahanjana@npa.gov.za

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