60-year-old Dr Emmanuel Edet, a trained obstetrician and gynecologist in the UK, and his wife, 58-year-old Antan Edet, who is a senior hospital nurse have been arrested in Britain for allegedly keeping another Nigerian, Ofonime Sunday Inuk, as a ‘slave’ for 24 years, after being hired at age 12 and smuggled into Britain at the age of 14, MailOnline reports.
Mr Inuk escaped from the couple’s home after hearing about a similar case in the media. He then contacted a charity that tipped off police who were stunned to find him alone at the couple’s £450,000 four-bedroom terrace home in Perivale, monitored by a CCTV camera.
Inuk told a jury at Harrow Crown Court that he had to sleep on the floor and could not use any of the rooms in the house, except to clean them. The court was told that Mr Inuk was introduced to the couple through a family friend in Nigeria and he was to be paid for his work and receive an education, but that never happened. He also described how he became scared of the couple after coming to the realization that they would not pay him or send him to school. ‘I could only take the children to the park, that was the only time I could take them out,’ he said.
It was reported that Emmanuel Edet demanded to be called ‘master’ as he continually beat his victim and subjected him to a ‘life of misery.’ The couple are also accused of stripping Ofonime Inuk of his passport and having him work up to 17 hours a day.
Asked by the prosecutor Roger Smart, why he received such treatment, he said:
‘Because they always said I had a destructive hand, that I was always mishandling things.’
In a police interview, he said he was known as a ‘house boy’, and added:
‘My role is to stay in the house … I always do everything in the house, sir … clean, cook, wash car, the gardening, ironing … or maybe like a slave. That’s called slavery.’
The couple, however both pleaded not guilty to holding a person in slavery and servitude.