Ex NBA chairman, Okechukwu arraigned for defiling minors, giving them out to sex seekers

Pamela Eboh, Awka

A former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Awka Branch, Mr. E.C.G Okechukwu Esq ,was on Tuesday, June 20th,2023 arraigned at the Awka Magistrate Court on charges bordering on sexual molestation of three minors.
A source said the former NBA boss allegedly brought the three underaged girls who were between the age of 8 -10 years-old from Ebonyi State and quartered them in his brothel, Happiness Guest House, located in Amawbia, where he molested them before offering them to his customers who patronize his brothel.
It was learnt that one of his customers who noticed some bruises on the body of one of the girls when he tried to have her that questioned her about the bruises.

On hearing the source of the bruises which reportedly happened when she tried to resist the sexual molestation from other patrons, he got 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 one 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 Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, who, with the help of the police, bursted the brothel and rescued them.
Speaking on the development, the State Commissioner for Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Hon. Obinabo restated the state government’s resolve to end all forms of child kidnap, trafficking and sexual slavery in Anambra State.
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.
An Awka -based lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed that some concerned lawyers had written petition to the NBA concerning the former chairman, as he was practicing law and running a brothel at the same time, saying that he could not ascertain the outcome of the petition.

The Court however remanded the former NBA Chairman in prison.