By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

A former Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Awka Branch, Mr. E.C.G. Okechukwu Esq , has been remanded in prison custody after being arraigned at the Awka Magistrate Court on charges bordering on sexual molestation of three minors.

News Express learnt that the former NBA boss allegedly brought the three under-aged girls from Ebonyi State and quartered them in his brothel, Happiness Guest House, located in Amawbia, where he allegedly molested them before offering them to some of those who patronise his brothel.

It was also gathered that it was one of his customers who noticed some bruises on the body of one of the girls when he tried to have her questioned her about the bruises.

On learning that she suffered the bruises when she tried to resist the sexual molestation from other patrons, he collected her parents’ phone number and alerted the parents, who later stormed the brothel with police from Ebonyi State and arrested everyone found in the brothel along with the senior lawyer over the weekend.

When interviewed, the underaged girls, who are all indigenes of Ebonyi State, said that people whose names they gave as Ifeoma and Chika brought them to Awka with a promise to offer them sales girl jobs, only for them to be forced into prostitution against their will.

On how they were finally rescued, the girls said one of them smartly used a whistleblower’s phone to get across to their family, while the whistleblower, in turn, notified the Anambra State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, , Hon. Ify Obinabo, who, with the help of the police, stormed the brothel and rescued them.

Speaking on the development, Hon. Obinabo restated the State Government’s resolve to end all forms of child kidnap, trafficking and sexual slavery in Anambra.

She warned hotel owners to desist from defiling, using underage girls to run their hotel businesses or be prepared to face the full weight of the law.

While noting that the case had already received Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s attention, the Commissioner further assured that it would not be treated with levity.

When Okechukwu was arraigned on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, the court remanded him in prison custody.

Update news