U.S. court convicts Nigerian woman of slavery

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Headlines Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

A United States federal jury has convicted a Nigerian, Bidemi Bello, of forced labour, trafficking for forced labour, document servitude, and alien harbouring

A statement by the US Department of Justice said Bello, formerly a resident of Suwanee, near Atlanta, Georgia, was convicted of eight counts late Friday.

According to federal prosecutors, the 41-year-old forced two young women to care for her daughter and to do household chores for years without pay.

“The evidence showed that this was a case of modern day slavery hidden within an expensive home in an upscale neighbourhood.

“The two women who were abused here thought they were going to be nannies; instead they were treated inhumanely,” US Attorney, Sally Quillian Yates, said in a statement.

The Special Agent in Charge of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, Brock Nicholson, said in a separate statement.

“Few crimes are more shocking than the trafficking of human beings in this country.

“No one should have to live in a world of isolation and forced servitude.”

The jury heard from two victims who had been separately recruited in Nigeria by Bello’s offer to come to the US to work as her nanny. In return, Bello promised she would send the young women to school in the US.

She promised to pay one of the women as well. However, once they arrived in the US, prosecutors said Bello became verbally and physically abusive to both young women.

She beat them for not cleaning well, not responding fast enough to her crying child, and if they talked back to her. The young women testified that Bello beat them with a large wooden spoon, shoes, electric cords and with her hands.

Despite living in an upscale home that had multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, prosecutors said Bello made the young women, known to the court as ‘Laome’ and ‘Dupe’, sleep on the floor or a couchwp_posts