Ijegulu and his partner receive life imprisonment for human trafficking

Nigerian national Jude Ijegulu and his partner Elizabeth Botes have been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of human trafficking and operating a brothel in South Africa.

This is what the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) says.

Ijegulu, 34, and his 29-year-old partner, from Centurion in Pretoria, were convicted in the Pretoria High Court.

Ijegulu was sentenced to two life sentences for two counts of rape and an additional two years for being in the country illegally.

SABC news reported on Saturday that the court had ordered Ijegulu's name to be added to the national sex offender register.

Gauteng National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said she welcomed the convictions.

“From November 2016 to September 2017, the two men ran a brothel in Centurion where they kept two women,” Lumka Mahanjana.

“The man raped the two women, supplied them with drugs and physically and sexually assaulted them,” Lumka Mahanjana said.

“The couple would also ask the two victims to provide sexual services to their clients.

“The judge concluded that the two men had violated the law on human trafficking. The man enslaved the two victims and gave them drugs.

In September 2019, six life sentences and an additional 129 years of imprisonment were imposed on a Nigerian national, Ediozi Odi, for human trafficking and related charges, after holding three girls hostage for labor as sex slaves.

The court heard for months behind closed doors the testimonies of three young victims, among others, aged 13 and 14, lured into the street by recruits – other young girls – used by Odi.

The girls were mostly vulnerable and came from poor families and were lured to a house in Springs with the promise of a better life.

It was reported that none of the victims had any idea that they were entering Odi's brothel – a house that posed as a shop and barber.