Britain based Nigerian couple arrested for keeping a 38 year old man as slave for 25 years

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.