ANOTHER IGBO GIRL ACCUSES COUPLE WHO BROUGHT HER TO AMERICA OF ABUSE

“Don’t Bring Anybody Unless It Is Your Mother”, caution a concerned woman

African Sun Times
Chika Onyeani

October 17, 2003—For the second in three years, a Igbo girl has accused a couple who brought her to the United States of making her a virtual slave. With these two cases, the Nigerian Igbo community in America is now seriously debating the virtue of trying to help indigents back home when it would land in jail as it did for the first couple in New York.

The Igbo couple, living in Germantown, Maryland, was accused of virtual enslavement of the girl in the home for five years, where she alleged she was repeatedly raped and beaten, although her family had been promised she would be paid as a baby sitter and allowed to continue her education in the United States, federal authorities have charged.

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt accuses Dr. Adaobi Stella Udeozor, 44, and her husband, George Chidebe Udeozor, both Nigerian natives, of harboring a juvenile illegal alien for financial gain, inducing an alien to illegally enter the country and conspiracy to harbor an illegal alien.

Dr. Udeozor, a licensed physician who owned the Optimum Care Medical Clinic in Montgomery County, was arrested at her home yesterday during an early morning raid by agents from the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Mr. Udeozor, who served as the clinic’s office manager, is believed to be in Nigeria and is considered a fugitive.

The unidentified victim, now 21, was taken from the Udeozor home in October 2001 after she reported the abusive behavior to Montgomery County police during an emergency telephone call. The matter was then turned over to federal immigration authorities.

According to an affidavit filed in support of a search and arrest warrant, the Udeozors visited the victim’s family in Nigeria in 1996 when she was 14 to make arrangements to bring her to the United States. The affidavit said the Udeozors told the family the girl could continue her studies in this country and they intended to use her as a baby sitter for their own children, for which she would be paid.

The affidavit said Mr. Udeozor smuggled the girl into the United States using his own daughter’s American passport.

The teenager, according to the affidavit, was kept at the Udeozor home for the next five years and forced to care for their five children without being paid. The affidavit also said she was forced to work without pay at the clinic, that she was not allowed to attend school, and that she was warned about being deported because she did not have any legal immigration documents.

Mr. Udeozor, according to the affidavit, forced the girl to have sexual intercourse with him beginning when she was 15

If convicted, the couple could be sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $250,000. In March, Optimum Care Medical Clinic pleaded guilty to conspiring with two of its employees to allow and facilitate the unlicensed practice of medicine. Optimum Care conspired with Ahmad Alvi and Theodros Dagnew to allow the two to practice medicine, authorities said, knowing they were not licensed as physicians in Maryland.

Although the clinic was owned by Dr. Udeozor, prosecutors said her husband was responsible for scheduling personnel and, at times when his wife was not present, he hired and scheduled others to see patients, including Mr. Alvi and Mr. Dagnew.

In the earlier New York case in 2000, the Igbo woman had charged that she spent nine years as a virtual slave in the Bronx, New York.

Beatrice Okezie had charged that she was 13 when she persuaded her parents to let her leave Nigeria in 1989 to live with Ifeoma Udogwu, a city child welfare worker, and her husband, Prosper.

Rather than the better life the Udogwus had promised her, Okezie said she was treated as an unpaid servant - forcing her to wash dishes, sweep floors and sleep on a mat in the living room.

Okezie had told her story in the Manhattan Federal Court, where the Udogwus were charged with involuntary servitude, importation of aliens and mail fraud.

Ms. Okezie further charged that she was beaten and belittled by the Odugwus for the slightest slip, describing the couple as perfectionists who made her care for the Udogwus four children, did the family’s family and cooking, cleaned the bathroom, weeded the garden and made the beds.

Okezie’s complaints then included the allegations that the wife Ifeoma Udogwu hit her with a broom because she didn’t sweep well. She also then charged that Prosper Udogwu slapped her for ironing two creases in his pants and spilling bleach in a wash load of dark clothes.

Dr. Prosper Udogwu, a medical practioner and his wife Ifeoma were eventually sentenced to ten years in jail.

There is a great lesson to be learned from these two cases - don’t bring anybody from the home country who is not related to you; but even if related to you, you must have an air-tight agreement what her duties would be. Also make sure that you brought the person into this country legally, which was one of the problems that the Udogwus had faced, smuggling the then 13 year old into the country.

When you bring someone who is under 18 years of age, remember that the law requires that she attends school.

Still the question remains, would these two cases, at least these two that are known, prevent most couples in need of helping hand, prevent them from reaching back home and at the same time extending a helping hand to indigent families to see that their children see the light of day?

But, according to Mrs. Beatrice Anyatuegwu, the best thing is to totally forget about bringing any under-age person. "When you go back home, the families would be approaching you left and right to please take their children overseas because they know that the life they would be living would be far better than what they are doing in Nigeria. Our culture is that the maid should wash dishes, clean the house and do other chores. But they are now calling these duties slavery - give me a break," she said with indignation.

"Some of them can become very insolent, and when you tell to stop they decide to run to the police and manufacture all kinds of things against you. My advice to anybody who is contemplating bringing somebody here, don’t do it unless it is your mother or much older sister, because sisters are also becoming just as bad as these girls."

Most of the men interviewed were very angry about the new phenomenon of charges of sexual abuse. “In this country,” said one of the men who didn’t want his name used, "as soon as a woman shouts ‘rape’, the onus is now on the man to clear his name, whether he hadn’t even contemplated about something like that. It is the culture of this place that this people, who you are trying to help make their families better, imbibe when they come to this country."

"Now look at this man who spent years going to medical school, rearing four children, and just because he tried to help a family in need back home, has landed him in jail for 10 years."

"I have told my wife forget about bringing her sister here, I would rather hire a baby sitter, pay her and have a peace of mind."