A Nigerian couple, two senior workers in Britain’s health sector - Dr Emmanuel Edet, 59, and his wife Antan Edet, 56, have been accused of secretly enslaving a man for a quarter of a century. And according to DailyMail, Scotland Yard is investigating after the alleged slave, also a Nigerian man, walked into a police station and claimed he was being held as a slave.
Ofonime Sunday Edet, 38, told officers he has been held against his will since being trafficked to Britain in 1989, when he was just 13. That he fell into the hands of his alleged captors after his father died when he was a young boy in Nigeria and he was forced to support his younger siblings.
The couple had promised him work, lodging and an education so he could support his family. They changed
his name to include the surname Edet and added him to the family passport. But when they got to Britain, he was forced to undertake menial tasks for years for little or no pay. Mr Edet claims he was stopped from going to school and banned from speaking to anyone as he spent up to 17 hours a day cooking and cleaning.
Investigators were told he feared he would be deported as an illegal immigrant if he spoke out and he had not money or other means of survival. However, he finally contacted police shortly before Christmas after hearing a report about the Maoist cult on the radio. The Edet family had travelled to Nigeria for a festive break and he was left alone, monitored by a CCTV camera.
It is believed Mr Edet tried to break free several times before, including once as long as 10 years ago, only to be rebuffed by the authorities. Cos after escaping, he told police he contacted them before, as well as social services and an MP but was apparently told ‘there is nothing we can do’.
Mr Edet’s two alleged captors, Dr Emmanuel Edet, 59, and his wife Antan Edet, 56, have been charged with holding a person in servitude and immigration offences.
Dr Edet is a respected gynaecologist who worked for Surrey County Council and has written several academic works on child welfare. He is an expert on teenage pregnancy and has worked as a non-clinical adviser and is the author of guidelines followed by hundreds of health workers.
His wife is a senior ward manager at Ealing Hospital, less than four miles from their modern terraced home in Perivale, North West London.
Neighbours reacted with shock to their arrest last night, describing them as a ‘perfectly ordinary couple’ with whom they exchanged gifts at Christmas. One said he regularly saw the man who claims he was a slave sweeping the path in front of their house and carrying out errands. He said:
‘It is hard to believe this can be true. Everyone assumed the man was their grown-up son, who simply never left home. I would often say ‘hello’ to him outside the house. He certainly never said anything to me about being held against his will.’
Meanwhile, Dr Edet and his wife have denied the offences. They face a maximum sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment and will appear at Harrow Crown Court later this month.
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