London-Based Nigerian Couple Convicted of Modern Day Slavery

A Nigerian couple living in Perivale, Northwest London, have been convicted of enslaving a man for 24 years.Dr Emmanuel Edet, 60-year old obstetrician and gynaecologist, and his58-year old wife, Antan, were accused of smuggling Ofonime Sunday Inuk into Britain as a child and subjecting him to modern day slavery.The 40-year old victim left Nigeria in 1989 when he was about 14 years old. He had accompanied the Edets to Britain, through Israel.Inuk had left Nigeria with the hopes that the Edets would provide him with an education and pay him for his work as “houseboy”. But the couple reportedly forced him to look after their two children, clean, cook and perform other duties for free while working 17 hours a day.Emmanuel Edet and his wife were both convicted of slavery, cruelty to a child and assisting unlawful immigration.Lamenting that the Edets had “cruelly robbed this victim of 24 years of his life”, Damaris Lakin, Crown Prosecution Service lawyer, described the development as “a shocking case of modern day slavery which has no place in our society”.The trial and conviction followed investigation by Scotland Yard after being contacted by Hope for Justice, a charity which had earlier received a mail from the victim.Ben Cooley, CEO of Hope for Justice, described Inuk’s case as “saddening” but “unfortunately, not surprising”. He added that the charity had liberated more than 70 slaves in the past eleven months.