UK court convicts Nigerian who uses witchcraft to traffic teenage girls for prostitution

A Nigerian human trafficker who terrified his victims into silence
through "juju" witchcraft rituals and sexual violence was convicted
Friday of trafficking girls to work in the sex trade across Europe.
Former security guard Osezua Osolase faces jail when he is sentenced
on Monday for trickingimpoverished young Nigerian girls into
travelling to Britain before farming them out as sex workers for up to
£70,000 a time to continental gangs.
Police identified flight records and forged passport records to show
that he recruited 28 girls and escorted many of them abroad over a
15-month period from 2010. But Osolase boasted to his victims that he
had been running the scam for more than adecade.
Osolase deliberately targeted some of the most vulnerable girls in the
world – orphaned, ill-educated and homeless – and brought them to
Britain where he kept them captive.
The 42-year-old ensured their obedience by binding the young girls to
him with "juju" rituals – apowerful force in parts of Nigeria– that
left girls fearing that they would die if they ran away or spoke out
against him.
But in a major breakthrough for police, officers traced three of their
victims – aged 14, 16, and 17 at the time – who were prepared to give
evidence after they were stopped by authorities while travelling to
the European cities on false travel documents.
One of the girls told how she wastaken to a house of witchcraft in
Lagos. The teenager was given a blood-like mixture, told to bathe in
it and wrap sodden cloth around her. A priest cut hair fromher
armpits, some of her finger and toenails and took blood fromher hand.
The woman was told that the body parts taken in the ritual would be
used to find and kill her if ever she tried to run away.
The majority of Osolase's victims were trafficked to Italy, Spain
andFrance where there is a high demand for West African women to work
in the sex trade, police said. However, detectives believe that he
funnelled his wealth back to Nigeria and had no trappings of wealth at
his home in Northfleet, Kent.
Detective Inspector Eddie Fox said: "Osolase led these girls to
believe a better life awaited them in the UK, he preyed on vulnerable
girls who had no one to care for them and would not be missed. "Juju
is a well established belief but Osolase corrupted it in a bid to gain
control and bend the wills of his victims. He exploited the girls and
took advantage of the fact they had nobody.''
SOURCE: Vanguard Nigeria