A NIGERIAN couple who smuggled two young Nigerian girls into the United States and held them in involuntary servitude in their home in the Bronx, New York has been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison. Prosper Emeka Udogwu and his wife, Ifeoma Ezeonu Udogwu, had been sentenced to 11 years and three months and 12 years and four months in prison respectively for forcing 10-year-old Rosemary and later 13-year-old Beatrice Okezie to act as the couple’s personal servants, and physically abusing and mistreating the girls. On August 2, 1998, when young Okezie said she wanted to leave the house, the Udogwus beat her so badly that her screams caused neighbors to call the police. – AFP