A notorious Nigerian woman who used African juju to force little girls into prostitution has finally been found guilty by a UK court.
Franca Asemota, known to her victims as “Auntie Franca”
A heartless Nigerian woman who used juju to force girls into prostitution in Europe has finally found guilty by a court in the United Kingdom.
The Sun reports that Franca Asemota, known to her victims as “Auntie Franca”, used Heathrow as a hub to traffic at least 40 children and young adults into Europe.
The 38-year-old lured the girls, as young as 14 and mainly orphans from remote Nigerian villages, with promises of jobs and education. She then used “witchcraft”, threats and violence to force them in to the European s*x trade.
Franca being escorted by security agents
She didn't work along, her gang audaciously managed to snatch back two girls who had been rescued and put in in foster care in Worthing, West Sussex which later served as her waterloo.
Today a jury at Isleworth Crown Court convicted Asemota of eight counts of conspiracy to traffic people into sexual exploitation. The trafficking first came to light when Border Agency officials stopped two groups, in September and November 2011, travelling on false passports.
Although she was not arrested at the time, Asemota’s ticket had been booked at the same time, at the same travel agent in Lagos, and she was sat next to the group on the plane.
Investigators then linked Asemota to at least six other “successful trafficking trips” and the kidnapping of two girls who had been placed in foster care on the south coast.
Franca has been found guilty
Speaking on the mode of operation used by the group, Paul Cabin, prosecuting said: "They all came from remote Nigerian villages and had all been told that they were going to be educated, trained and employed in France.
"They all had difficult histories - for example, some were orphans. One was a runaway from an attempted forced marriage.
"They and their families and guardians are told that educational and work opportunities exist in Europe for them.
"Initially, therefore, the girls go with the gang voluntarily.
"Their compliance from that point on is secured by a mixture of threats, to themselves and their families back in their villages, the use of 'Ju-Ju' rituals and sexual violence, including in one case rape."
He added: "All but one reported at the time that they had been trafficked by a female who accompanied them on the aircraft from Lagos, known variously as Auntie Franca or Violet."
It was only when they had traveled "a long way from their villages were they told they were really destined for a life of prostitution," he said. The "successful" trips all took place within a few months of each other at the end of 2011, and involved 40 victims.
It took investigators nearly three years trying to locate Asemota until they successfully tracked her down to Nigeria on March 25, 2015, and she was arrested and extradited.
Franca used African juju to force her victims into prostitution
One of these men was Odosa Usiobaifo, who is currently serving a 14-year prison sentence after being jailed in 2013. Jose Olivares-Chandler, defending, denied Asemota knew of any wrongdoing and said she acted as a "mere chaperone" on the flights.
But it took less than 12 hours of deliberation for the jury to find her guilty of the eight conspiracy counts.
They also found her guilty of two counts of trafficking a person out of the UK for sexual exploitation and two counts of assisting unlawful immigration to an EU member state.
Asemota, of no fixed abode, will be sentenced later this month.
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