Thaindian News

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) – A Texas couple was sentenced to 20 years for enslaving a Nigerian Woman for over eight years, the U.S. Justice Department said Friday.

Emmanuel Nnaji, 50, a naturalized citizen of the United States, and Ngozi Ihechere Nnaji, 40, a citizen of Nigeria, forced a widowed and mother of six children into labor for over eight years, after she was promised that in exchange for her work in the United States, her children, including one suffering from a chronic illness, would be cared for in Nigeria.

Upon arrival in the United States, the couple confiscated the victim’s passport and never returned it. For more than eight years, the victim cared for the couple’s children day and night, cooked and cleaned with no days off.

The woman was overwhelmingly controlled, as she was prohibited from speaking with her children on the phone unsupervised, and forbidden her to make friends or converse with the couple’s friends. In addition, the victim also testified that Emmanuel Nnaji sexually assaulted her.

Although the victim was promised that her family would be cared for, her family received a total of about $300 over the eight years, and when the victim asked to return to Nigeria, the couple refused. The victim was ultimately rescued with the assistance of a Catholic priest.

“The involuntary servitude and mistreatment that this victim endured is intolerable in a nation founded on freedom and individual rights,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The prosecution of this case demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to punishing those who prey upon vulnerable victims and exploit them in modern day slavery.”

“The FBI is committed to aggressively pursuing and brining to justice the human traffickers who prey upon others who are only seeking to better their lives,” said Special Agent in Charge Robert E. Casey Jr., FBI Dallas. “The sentencing in this case sends a strong message to those who are engaged in this heinous form of modern day slavery that this practice will not be tolerated in our community.”

On February 2, 2010, both defendants were convicted by a Ft. Worth, Texas, jury on all charges, including conspiracy to commit forced labor, forced labor, conspiracy to harbor an alien for financial gain, harboring an alien for financial gain, document servitude and false statements to an FBI agent.

Emmanuel Nnaji was sentenced to 20 years in prison and Ngozi Ihechere Nnaji was sentenced to nine years in prison. They were also ordered to pay $305,957.60 in restitution.