Story/Investigation By Anthony Obi Ogbo
INT' GUARDIAN, HOUSTON TX

As the country battles to put behind it the dark history of a Black race devastated by the controversial dehumanization and battery that defaced its existence during the 18th century, ugly but similar incidents perpetrated by persons of the same Black race ridicule the entire healing process. In fact, such events make the long-time reparations battle seem most ridiculous. Today it appears that the slave traders, keepers, hawkers, rearers and human traffickers are no longer the Portuguese, other Europeans or early missionaries. The truth is far more embarrassing; a revelation that could result in shocking updates to an already shameful history.
Adding to the documented timeline of recent stories related to human trafficking all over the nation, the latest incident which occured in Houston, a massive city, and one of the most diverse in the United States, has thrown its 100,000 African residents into a sea of shock, causing a heated battle between rights groups and local socialite, Mrs. Beatrice Nwakego Ikeakor. The crime? Ikeakor is accused of holding a 10-year old trafficking victim captive for more than 19 years.
As of press time, the following groups, Africans In America, Inc., Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities International, Inc. in collaboration with YMCA International, have exchanged indignant communication with Board of Immigration Appeals, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Honorable members of the United States Congress and the Attorney General of the United States to halt deportation of one immigrant, Celestina Ifeacho Joseph, alledged to have been shipped into the country for labor purposes to Mrs. Ikeakor in 1984.
International Guardian investigations reveal other agencies including the Texas State Department of Aging and Disabilities, U.S. Department of State, Office of Trafficking in Persons, and the World Organization Against Torture, USA have been put on alert to secure a petition to grant this victim unconditional amnesty and to prosecute the captor. It was gathered that Mrs. Celestina Ifeacho Joseph, who hails from an impoverished family in Enugwu-Ukwu, Anambra State of Nigeria was just a 10-year primary school scholar when when she was brought into Houston in 1984. According to Celestina, "I did not know much, but my parents told me I would be going to America to live with my rich Auntie and go to school.
Celestina, however, was recruited by a Nigerian-based influential civil servant, Mrs. Josephine Nwosu, who falsely claimed her as a daughter during the visa application process at the United States Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria. Then she was transported to the new plantation - the home of Nwosu's sister in Houston, Mrs. Ikeakor.
It was gathered that her alleged traffickers secured a two-week US visa bearing Celestina Ifeacho Nwosu for the sole purpose of shipping their human merchandise. According to Celestina, "I was so excited as everybody talked about the wonders of America and how I would finish school and start helping my poor family." How far did Celestina's excitement go? As soon as she arrived the United States, her dream, without a moment's notice, turned into a total nightmare. Poor Celestina was welcomed into her new dream home with a long list of domestic duties, which gradually metamorphosed into denial of rights and physical and mental abuse. Ultimately, she was confined to her plantation-like home for more than 19 years.
She told International Guardian that "the first day I came, they started me with babysitting some kids, and then cleaning the house and doing laundry. I was surprise that, from then on, noboby mentioned school."
But this story did not soon end for the girl forced to perform petty domestic chores. The following is taken from powerfully worded documents filed by Africans In America, Inc., and Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities International, Inc. to the Board of Immigration Appeals, Department of Homeland Security, and copied to the Attorney General of the United States and all honorable members of the United States Congress - o Celestina worked as a live-in housemaid from 1984 to 1999 without pay. o Forced/coerced to raise the 4 children during the same period, without pay. o Worked at a Nigerian restaurant owned by her mistress without pay. o Sexually abused by Mr. Gabriel Ikeakor, Beatrice's husband. o Denied primary and secondary school education as was promised. o Worked at her mistress' assisted living homes without pay. o Immigration status was not adjusted as promised due to suspicion that it would guarantee her an escape from a life of labor.
The petition has since gotten the attention of the US Secretary of State, YMCA International, World Organization Against Torture, USA, Houston Area Women Center and U.S. Department of State, Office of Trafficking in Persons. It is agreed that Celestina was totally unkempt and medically neglected. According to the document, " whenever the victim became seriously ill, due to injuries sustained during incidents of abuse, she was smuggled to clinics run by Nigerian doctors, or public health centers with Nigerian staff as part of the cover-up.
Though some of the allegations sound stranger than fiction, Celestina cried as she confirmed these incidents that devastated her life, leaving her mentally and psychologically distressed. She wept loudly as she narrated an incident where she was forced to sleep in the wash room for almost one year. Said Celestina, "When I turned 13 and started seeing my period, I did not know what to do. Then they said I have body odor and Auntie Betty [referring to her mistress, Beatrice] made me sleep in the washroom every day for almost one year." Kimberly Washington of the Guardian newsroom, contacted the alledged captor but could not get a response. Mrs. Ikeakor, following orders from her attorney declined an interview. A brief dialogue ensued:
Kimberly: I am doing research for a story, let me get my questions
Betty: Sure
Kimberly: Do you know Celestina Ifeacho
Betty: Yes
Kimberly: What is your relationship to Celestina Ifeacho
Betty: She is my cousin, why are you asking me this.
Kimberly: I am doing research for a story, I am calling on behalf of Guardian News
Betty: Kimberly, my lawyer says I shouldn't answer any questions
Kimberly: Would you like for us to speak to your lawyer
Betty: No, I will call him and see if he wants to talk to you. What she is saying, it is false.. it is all lies and anyone who writes a story about it will be sued for libel. It is all lies.
Kimberly: I understand
Betty: Yes, so I cannot talk about it, it is all lies
. Kimberly: I understand, that is all I need then
Betty: Ok
Kimberly: Have a good day
Betty: bye

Proof of Celestina's years in alledged captivity may have helped her case, providing investigators with sustainable evidence that could detain her deportation process. In 1999, at the age of 25, Celestina demanded her freedom and payment for forced labor. At that time, she was logging unpaid hours at one of her trafficker's assisted living homes for persons with disabilities. But the defiant Madame Ikeakor threatened to hand her over to immigration if she ever mentioned that again.
According to Celestina, "she would always threaten to harass my family back home or threaten to hand me over to the law for for immediate deportation." Her years in active slavery could have been cut short and horrible moments avoided if those acquainted with her captors had intervened. "Everybody tried to take advantage of me," she said as she narrated multiple incidents of sexual molestation she suffered from Gabriel, husband to her mistress, who passed in 2004. Previously, she had vowed never to reveal any sexual misconduct because, according to her, "Nobody was going to marry me if they knew I had been raped.
Shortly before she escaped, another family friend, Emeka Nzewi, initiated an arguably consensual affair with Celestina. "He would sneak into the house to take advantage of her," confided a source. According to Celestina, "I thought he was going to get me out of my situation and marry me, but when I found out he was just taking advantage of me, I stopped seeing him. Nzewi admitted to a consensual relationship with Celestina, according to him, "when she was already an adult." When asked why he did not report Celestina's situation, or even render any aid, Nzewi did not elaborate. Similarly, the Guardian uncovered, a Catholic father very close to the family knew about Celestina's ordeal but maintained silence. Sources gathered that Rev. Romanus O. Muoneke, an administrator with St. Francis of Assisi Church in Houston plays a much more significant role in the Ikeakor house than the late head of household, Gabriel. "I know that the Father even has the key to that house and I'm wondering why he did not do anything for this child," querried a Houston registered nurse who claimed to be one of Celestina's benefactors when she was trying to get her life back. Since the Catholic Community plays such a major role in both providing and advocating safe grounds for refugees, immigrants and various victims of social discrimination, International Guardian confronted Father Muoneke for comments, but came away with very little.
Muoneke admitted being close to the family and knowing the alledged victim "very well," but declined any further comments, saying he could not discuss the matter on the phone. Celestina confirmed Muoneke did not play any significant role that "I knew of but was like a household member. I only saw him sometimes when I was serving food." However, a reverend sister visiting from Nigeria proved to be more observant and, in fact, more "Catholic". Celestina said "she asked why I had not received Holy Communion and why I was not confirmed in the church." The Sister confronted her hosts, the Ikeakors, and made sure little Celestina received both communion and confirmation. This was the only education she received in the 19 years she was separated from her parents.
Celestina made several attempts to escape but could not get help. In 2003, however, the victim made her way towards freedom as she fled the harsh world of the Ikeakor home. Unfortunately, there was to be no counseling or therapy to affirm her sense of normalcy. Vulnerable, timid and hopeless, Celestina rushed into marriage in the vain hope of a secure life. But misfortune kept raining in. International Guardian gathered that with her husband came challenges that jeopardized Celestina's dogged attempt to settle into regular life. At this point, the need for professional help became unavoidable. It was an idea she had always rejected for fear of punitive retaliation from her former captor.
Chief Eric Ufom, Chairman of Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities International, Inc. told International Guardian that "We met Mrs. Celestina Ifeacho Joseph who married Mr. Joseph, in about February 2003, when a fellow Nigerian introduced her to our organization. After listening to her predicament, we accepted her as one of our members, opened up a case and began verification and high-level advocacy on her behalf.
According to Ufom, "We referred her to Houston Area Women Center, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance and others. "We filed motions for amicus curiae (friend of the court) to recommend that the court to reopen and reconsider her case as a victim of human/child trafficking, violence against women, sexual abuse, rape, slavery, child labor, torture, etc.
This group contacted the United States Department of Health and Human Services for Celestina's certification as a victim of these unfortunate crimes. According to Ufom "we had to go through this route based on advise given to us by the United States Department of State, Department of mentoring of Human trafficking, who also referred us to the Department of Homeland Security to request an immediate interview for us in certifying her.
"We contacted all members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives, to include different committees. We also contacted the United Nations, Africans In America, Inc, IDC, IDA , RI and 100s of other organizations," Ufom said. Bonaventure N. Ezekwenna, Executive Director, and Co-Chair of the Board of Africans in America Inc. said "there is really not much I can do because we are based in New York, however, we have expressed support and provided lots of information based on our experience with these types of cases." He continued, "we are not involved in day-to-day case management of this issue, because it is outside our jurisdiction. However, whatever support Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities International, Inc. needed, we were able to provide." Ms. Veronica Zeitlin, Director of Office of the United States Department of States, Washington, DC, referred our newsroom to one Robin Jones, who was said to have been following this case.
Jones, who works with the United States Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC, was out of town and could not be reached at press time. As time runs out in Celestina's deportation process, International Guardian gathered that agitating groups have vowed to maintain their demands for justice regardless of the outcome of Celestina's case. Around March 27th, Mr. Ezekwenna of Africans In America, Inc. wrote a detailed letter on behalf of Celestina to President George Bush stating that "deporting this victim at this moment will only serve to protect her still-living traffickers and their associates."
Celestina is not giving up although her ordeal may have turned her into a villain. She has revealed that she is fighting both a battle for survival and yet another to free herself from an attorney she claimed "has wrongly represented me." According to Celestina, "he came here and told me that Auntie [Mrs. Ikeakor] is his good friend, and as a result, he will not do anything in this case that will incriminate her. She said "This attorney also told me he was referred by my sister in Nigeria, only to find out she was sent by Auntie Betty to set me up for deportation.
So I asked him to withdraw" International Guardian obtained a notarized contract termination letter addressed to one Attorney Ike Nweze and Associates. The letter states, "I will no longer be needing the services of your law firm. I believe that Mr. Ike Nweze is not representing me to the best of ability due to conflict of interest on my case." Calls to this law office have not been returned as of press time, but International Guardian is informed that his services are being contested and may end up as a complaint at Texas Bar Association.
Celestina now relies on Nweze's camp, human rights groups and a benefactor as her only hope towards obtaining justice. A 'Celestina Ifeacho Defense Fund' has been established by the Africans in America Inc. soliciting financial assistance to aid their progress. Although there are some who are determined to support Celestina's fight for justice, the Guardian newsroom has been recently informed that there is much debate among members of the Houston branch of an organization based in Celestina's very own hometown of Enugu Ukwu as to whether or not they will come to her aid in this matter. Members of the organization could not be reached for comment.
Child trafficking is no small matter in the today's world as it competes with drugs in hollowing a serious dent in social stability. Its magnitude cannot be overstated. For instance, State Department data "estimated 600,000 to 820,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 percent are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors. The data also illustrates that the majority of transnational victims are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation."
Due to the felonious nature of trafficking and differences in methodology, the exact extent is unknown.
Furthermore, an estimated 14,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year. Human trafficking has been increasing tremendously in Africa, South Asia and into North America.
Children from Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana are trafficked to Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Gabon. Children are trafficked both in and out of Benin and Nigeria. Some children are sent as far away as the Middle East, Europe or America. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country is a recognized source, transit, and destination country for trafficked women and children. From there, victims are trafficked to Europe, the Middle East, and other countries in Africa for the purposes of punitive labor, domestic servitude, and sexual exploitation.
Females are frequently smuggled into Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Cote d'Ivoire, and South Africa for forced prostitution. Other children are trafficked for involuntary domestic labor and street hawking within Nigeria and to countries in West and Central Africa.
The statistics gets worse. In fact, States Department confirmed that the Nigerian government does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and places the West African Nation on what it called "Tier 2 Watch List" because of the continued significant complicity of its security personnel in trafficking, and the lack of evidence of increasing efforts to address this complicity. The criminal provisions in the comprehensive anti-trafficking law passed in June 2003 in Nigeria remain untested, US Government clarified, although the government created the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), as the law mandates, in August of the same year.
Perhaps even more sickening a ridicule of that law, reports indicated that government officials, particularly police and immigration and border officials, facilitate the trafficking of women and children.
United Nations classified trafficking in human beings as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people for the purpose of exploitation, which involves a process of using illicit means such as threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability. In 2000 it adopted the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, with two protocols; Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children; and the one against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air.
But the United States federal government took a more conservative stance against this act both within its borders and beyond. Domestically, human trafficking is prosecuted through the Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section of the United States Department of Justice New laws were passed under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. These laws responded to a changing face of trafficking in the United States. It allowed for greater statutory maximum sentences for traffickers, provided resources for protection of and assistance for victims of trafficking and created avenues for inter-agency cooperation in the field of human trafficking. It also allows many trafficking victims to remain in the United States and apply for permanent residency - a benefit Celestina's defense team claims is is entitled to.
Since this new law took effect, a large number of traffickers have been prosecuted and jailed for various violations.
April, 2006 - One Adaobi Stella Udeozor, a 46-year physician who lives in Darnestown, Maryland, who prosecutors say, beat her victim and "kept her in involuntary servitude," received a seven year and three months sentenced in federal prison, and was ordered to pay restitution of $110,249 to her former captive for her labor. The victim had been taken from her family in Nigeria as an adolescent and brought under false pretenses to the United States , where, according to evidence presented in federal court, she was raped by the man who claimed he was adopting her and abused by the man's wife.
The Adaobi is now divorced, ex-husband, George Udeozor was immediately arrested in Nigeria for extradition.

Face-to-Face

She told her story this time without shame. She had kept her ordeal secret for fear of reprisal from her captors and to save her fragile image. But this time, she knew that she had fallen flat on the ground and could never fall again, so finally she is letting her voice be heard, relying on the "Blood of Jesus" to vindicate the unjust and reward her with a happy ending. Read