INHUMANITY:
Nigerian Born British Woman Medical Doctor, AYODEJI ADEWAKUN, Nursing Husband deceitfully Trafficked ‘Slave Nanny’ into United Kingdom from Lagos…Promised earlier to pay £500 per month, only to pay her £15 a month
*Nigerian couple seized her passport and threatened to beat her when she asked for her pay
* ‘Couple convicted of trafficking by a jury at Southwark Crown Court following an investigation’- Scotland Yard’s Modern Slavery and Kidnap Unit
* “The couple persuaded me to come and care for their two children in Erith, south-east London, since 2005. I told told Southwark Crown Court my experience. I was later forced to work all day cleaning the house, cook for the family, was even woken up if the doctor got home late and wanted a snack. I met the Adewakuns during their visits back to Nigeria where my father was employed in a similar role by Adewakun’s parents”-37-year-old victim narrate in tears
*PLUS how she escaped the slavery by luck
BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU/AMERICAN FOREIGN BUREAU CHIEF & LAMIDE IYIOLA/CRIME WRITER, London
THEY ARE NIGERIAN BORN COUPLE, but Naturalized British citizens. They are very wicked. DR. AYODEJI ADEWAKUN, a 44 year old Medical Doctor and nursing husband, Abimbola deceitfully brought in a 37 year old Nigerian woman to work and take good care of their two children with a promise of giving her a monthly salary of £500, whereas the nanny was paid £15 a month for two years. The Nigerian couple’s sacrilege was busted as not only were these Nigerian couple arrested, but prosecuted.
Adewakun, 44, and her nurse husband Abimbola Adewakun, 48, lured the woman to the UK from Nigeria with promises of a salary of £500 per month. The couple confiscated her passport as soon as she arrived in February 2007 and subjected her to ‘constant demands and verbal abuse’. She managed to escape two years later after finally receiving just £350 – the equivalent of a wage of £15 a month. The couple were convicted of trafficking by a jury at Southwark Crown Court today following an investigation my Scotland Yard’s Modern Slavery and Kidnap Unit.
Jurors were unable to reach a verdict in relation to Dr Adewakun on a charge of trafficking a second alleged victim. Her husband was cleared of that charge. Judge Martin Beddoe warned the couple face ‘a significant sentence of immediate imprisonment’ before granting them bail.
Eye witness report said the couple persuaded the woman to come and care for their two children in Erith, south-east London, years earlier in 2005. The 37-year-old victim told Southwark Crown Court she was later forced to work all day cleaning the house, cook for the family and was even woken if the doctor got home late and wanted a snack.
On how she met the Nigerian couple, the nanny said she met the Adewakuns during their visits back to Nigeria where her father was employed in a similar role by Mr Adewakun’s parents. The jury heard she was promised £500 per month in a similar arrangement before ‘she too was subject to constant demands and verbal abuse’ from Mrs Adewakun.
She described a typical working day involving cleaning the house, cooking for the family, preparing the children for school, running errands and sometimes working through to midnight before being allowed to finally go to bed.
After being threatened she was ‘lucky not to be beaten like the last girl’, she finally demanded payment in February 2009 – after two years without receiving any money.
A bank account was then opened with a £50 deposit followed by further payments of £100, prompting her to flee the home.
