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

This is according to South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

Ijegulu, 34, and his 29-year-old partner, who is from Centurion in Pretoria, received their sentences in the Pretoria High Court.

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

SABC news on Saturday reported that the court ordered that Ijegulu’s name be added to the National Register of Sexual Offenders.

National Prosecuting Authority’s Gauteng spokesperson, Lumka Mahanjana says they welcome the sentences.

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

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

“The couple would also instruct the two victims to render sexual services to clients.

“The Judge found that the two violated the Human Trafficking Act. The man enslaved the two victims and fed them drugs.”

On September 2019, six life sentences and an additional 129 years imprisonment was meted out to a Nigerian national, Ediozi Odi for human trafficking and related charges after he kept three young girls hostage to work as sex slaves.

The court heard evidence behind closed doors for months from, among others, three young victims around the age of 13 and 14, who were lured from the streets 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 promises of a better life.

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

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