By Ade Olu
Human trafficking, the world’s third largest crime industry, is said to be assuming a disturbing dimension in the South-East region of Nigeria. What factors are responsible for this development? What are the manifestations of the crime and what efforts are being made by state and non-state actors to arrest the ugly trend? In this Special Report, Ade Olu attempts to provide some insights to the questions.
Osinachi Ikeoha (not her real name), hails from Ebonyi State, but resided in Enugwu-Ukwu, Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State. A product of an indigent family, she became a victim of human trafficking in December 2019 after falling for the tricks of a close neighbour, who deceitfully convinced her mother to release her sixteen-year-old daughter to serve as a housemaid to an aunty based in Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of Anambra State, who will pay her handsomely for the services.
“She promised that the aunty in Onitsha will take good care of me. So, my mother agreed, and I followed her to Onitsha. But, before I knew what was happening, I found myself at Elele, Rivers State. I was not comfortable,” she said.
While she was still struggling to unravel the sudden change of destination, Osinachi had no premonition that she had been engaged for forced prostitution. “I slept with ten men that same night. I did not know that I would not die. In the process, I got pregnant. But I could not say who was responsible because many men slept with me.”
Despite being pregnant, the exploitation continued. Fortunately, succour came her way through an unknown person. That was the end of the experience she described as the worst moments of her life. “I did not know the man. He was touched by my sufferings and decided to help me. He was God sent,” Osinachi noted.
She returned to Enugwu-Ukwu and reported the matter to the Sexual Assault Referral Centre, which took it up with relevant authorities. It could not however be ascertained if she had gotten justice.
Osinachi’s story, which undoubtedly reflects the reality around internal trafficking within the shores of Nigeria, is a violation of Section 3 of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015, which prohibits taking advantage of somebody’s vulnerability to recruit, transport, transfer, harbour or receive him or her for the purpose of exploitation, in a manner that the victim becomes helpless and sees submission to the abuser as the only option available in his or her situation.
Chukwuka Onyegesi from Awa Idemili, in Orsu Local Government Area of Imo State, presents another pathetic tale of genuine intention gone awry. Chukwuka, a businessman, decided early 2020 to explore economic fortunes in other clime after his thriving business took a nosedive. He recounted with bitter feelings: “I was selling electrical bulb, wire, etc. I learnt the business for nine years. But the Chinese company I was selling their products went down. It really affected my business. That was why I decided to move out of the country.”
His preferred destination was Germany, and he was ready to pay his way through. “I met an agent, who prepared the documents after paying him N1.6 million,” he said. “I started the journey. We travelled by air to Egypt. That was where they told me my papers were not correct. I was deported. It pained me.”
However, his determination to relocate was undying. Six months after the unfortunate deportation from Egypt, Chukwuka, was poised to try again. “I met a new agent to help me to Germany because I know there are jobs there. But the agent confused me to settle for Indonesia as a better alternative to Germany.”
Out of desperation, Chukwuka gave in, and the agent got all the necessary documents for the journey. Unlike, the first attempt, Chukwuka’s trip to the Asian country was very smooth. However, the success was short-lived. “Immediately I landed, I was happy. I called the number of another agent, who was supposed to assist me to settle down and search for job. The number was not connecting. I tried it for days and weeks, no way. My hope was gone because I had only three-month visa.”
Stranded without any idea of what next to do, his visa expired, and Chukwuka immediately became an illegal immigrant, a fate common to several Nigerian migrants. “I saw Nigerians, who were involved in dirt jobs including internal fraud, yahoo business, but I could not do it. I finished the money on me. Life was tough for me.”
To beat the Indonesian law, Chinedu decided to help himself. “I started hiding because if they catch me, it is either they deport me or throw me into cell. I did not want to be deported and I did not want to go to jail.”
But he soon ran out of luck. Immigration officers raided their hide-out. “One day, they came to our house and arrested all of us. They threw the four of us into cell. My brother, all the fourteen of us I saw were Igbos. We were feeding only on white rice.”
“If they put you in cell and nobody comes for you, they torture the person to death. To come out, you must pay between 500,000 and 700,000. They threatened to kill me and said our government would do nothing about it,” Chukwuka recounted.
The threat to kill was not empty one, according to s Chukwuka: “There was one guy they beat to death. They took him out and tortured him so that his people can bring money. He died in the process. It was God, who said I would come back alive.
“Before they arrested us, I made a video requesting for help. Unknown to me, RARJUDA International was already making effort to rescue me. When they came, they could no longer interact with me. I had linked them up with another person. They worked together with him to bring me out of prison,” he said.
Expectedly, Chukwuka’s release from prison, facilitated by RARDUJA International, a non-governmental organisation, left him with sorrowful emotions. “I did not believe it. I was afraid of not being taken back there. I only believe I was free when I entered the plane bringing us back to Nigeria,” he noted.
Full of regret for the two dangerous adventures, Chukwuka’s woes got compounded back in Nigeria by unfulfilled government promise of empowerment. He recounted the occasion and promise at Government House Owerri. “Despite all that the state government promised me, that they would treat my matter to enable me to get back to my business, I have not seen anything.”
Despite almost N3,000,000 squandered on the futile, ill-executed journey, the hope of getting a new lease of life led Chukwuka to a life of sorrow, regret, and despair.
“I am not doing anything at the moment. I lost all that I had. So, I went back to Lagos to work in a factory. They were paying me N25,000. I stopped the work end of May. As I am talking to you, I am in Onitsha. I came back so I can be closer to my people. Let me see if I will be able to find something tangible to do.”
The complicity of some travel agents in the human trafficking crime and their possible connivance with immigration officials deserve the attention of relevant authorities. According to Chukwuka: “it will be good if the government can be serious about them. They confuse many Nigerian youths just to collect their money and leave them homeless in foreign lands. The agents deceive people with sweet mouth to make us commit our money only for us to find out the ugly reality.
“The first agent who duped me of N1.6 million must have perfected the fake documentation with the connivance of immigration officials. Some of the officials are corrupt. I want Nigerian youths to understand that.
Chukwuka is now helping with the campaign against the penchant for overseas travels, wishing that no one else will fall into the traps of fraudulent travel agents. “There is one close to me here. He wants to travel at all costs, and I was telling him just yesterday. I am not playing an obstacle. But anywhere you are going, if you are not very sure of everything, don’t go.”
“Once they doubt me, I will show them the pictures on my phone which I took when I was inside aeroplane coming back to Nigeria. I tell them countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, India. I mention like seven countries. Don’t go there. Nigeria is better than those countries,” he warned.
Chukwuka’s tale of woes is a bitter representation of the dehumanizing experiences of several Nigerian youths, especially of Igbo extraction, some of whom end up being trafficked. Some could not live to share the sad stories.
The fact that traffickers engage victims’ kith and kin or close neighbours as recruiters, was all-evident in the incredible narrative of Ebere Ikegbunam, another victim, whose mother played a pivotal role in her predicament. She shared what sounds like a fairy tale.
“I got pregnant, and my mum arranged that I should go to her friend in Lagos so that people round will not make jest of me, since I was not married.”
Unknown to her, danger was lurking around the corner with her mother’s full knowledge. This, she only realized on the day of delivery. “They gave me injection. I didn’t know where I was. When I came back, the nurses told me that my baby died. I asked them to show me where they buried the baby. They refused.”
Although the case was reported to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), her ignorance and poor exposure stood between her and justice as attested to by NAPTIP commander in Anambra State, Mrs Ibadin Judith-Chukwu. “The case was reported here. But we could not do much to assist her. The lady is illiterate and from the village. She could not remember the name of the hospital, where the incident took place, neither could she even lead us there. That was our problem with her case.”
Just last year, 15-year-old Chidera Nwankwo, from Amaike Aba in Ebonyi Local Government Area, became a victim of trafficking for forced labour, one of the concerns in the East. She was baited by a flyer announcing lucrative job opportunities at an undisclosed neo-life company. “I was at Kpirikpiri market helping my mother to sell her wares. One boy sharing flyers gave me one and asked me to call the number on it or come to training session inside Saint Patrick.”
Chidera got fascinated but spoke with her father, who warned her against anything that could distract her from her academic pursuit. “I agree with my daddy but the following day, when my mother went to international market, I sneaked out of her shop to attend the training.
“Before I left the training centre that day, they told me to come with few of my clothes next time and I should not inform anyone as the business was an opportunity to make money,” Chidera recounted.
Like someone under a spell, the teenager stormed out of her father’s house to keep appointment with her new friends. “That day, they ended the training on time and asked me to follow them to Imo State. Immediately I joined them in the bus, one of them collected my phone and switched it off. She said she didn’t want my people to trace me.”
It was in Owerri, Imo State capital, that it dawned on her she was a victim of trafficking for forced labour. She was quickly initiated into hawking under harsh and dehumanizing conditions. “They forced us to hawk without terms and conditions. No pay. They were giving us N100 for breakfast every day, no more food. All the fifteen of us stayed in one room.”
“Most of the girls I met there told me that their parents were not aware of their whereabouts. The people say they will pay them N25,000 per month but they never pay them.”
When the suffering became unbearable, Chidera pestered her recruiters to establish link with her parents. The request, after several refusal, was eventually granted. That was the beginning of her freedom. “Immediately my phone came on, my uncle called me. I told him that I was taken to Owerri to work for a company. By then, I had made N2000. When I told them I want to go home, the lady who took me away gave me additional N1000 for the journey back to Abakaliki.”
Those responsible for the Chidera’s recruitment are indisputably guilty of Section 22 of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition), Enforcement and Administration Act, which states that any person who requires, recruits, transports, harbours, receives or hires out a person to be used for forced labour within or outside Nigeria commits an offence and is liable upon conviction to imprisonment for minimum of 5 years and fine of at least N1,000,000.
Chidera regained her freedom and one of the recruiters for the company was eventually arrested and paraded at the Abakiliki Police Station, B-Division Kpirikpiri, popularly called Kpirikpiri Police Station. Although her ordeal lasted for one month, the psychological trauma associated with it was visible as she recounted the short but harrowing experience.
How oath taking empowers traffickers against the victims
Apart from being a low risk and highly profitable organised crime, human trafficking thrives on oath taking. The native doctors often demand for victims’ pubic hair or inner wears for the rituals or make incisions on them symbolizing blood tie between them and the traffickers. The aim is to put them in perpetual, unbroken allegiance, and loyalty to their oppressors.
The victims thereafter commit themselves to eternal silence, which accounts for their uncooperative stance with those with the mandate to help them, including law enforcement agents. That apparently is due to weighty consequences of breaking the oaths, which include: strange illnesses, madness and even death. The threats around the oath are not restricted to the victims but also their family members.
“They deploy all means to hold them under the bondage,” Hope Okoye, the Executive Director, Integrated Anti-Human Trafficking and Community Development Initiative, (INTACOM AFRICA), explained.
In the past, the oath taking was majorly done in Edo State. Another shrine for oath taking was discovered long ago at Umumbele Village, Awka, Anambra State, where a native doctor was administering the oaths on victims before they are trafficked. The choice of Edo for oath taking is understandable due to the existence of oath taking temples, which are essential feature of the Edo traditional religion. Those temples are widely believed to offer native justice system regarded as more reliable than the official justice system.
However, investigation revealed that the oaths are no longer taken in Nigeria but in various destination countries. This is largely attributed to the curse placed on traffickers and native doctors, who perform the oath taking by Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, in March 2018. The native doctors were made to annul the impacts of previous oaths on the victims, who afterwards felt greatly relieved. It was also a huge breakthrough for the anti-human trafficking war in the country.
Edo is undoubtedly reaping the fruits of the royal curse, as its rating in terms of burden of the crime has greatly improved. NAPTIP’s latest figures in its January-June 2021 Data Analysis Report, reveal that Edo State is no longer featured in the top five states for trafficking victims. The largest number of victims rescued outside of Nigeria, according to the report, were from Benue State, followed by Akwa Ibom and Kano. 2020 was the first year when most victims rescued by NAPTIP were not from Edo State.
The development compelled the traffickers to shift operational base from Edo to neigbouring states, including those in the South-East region, where incidence of the crime is at all-time high with proliferation of brothels where young ladies and teenagers are sexually exploited. There is also a growing worry about increase in the number of baby factories found in various parts of the region.
Just recently, thirty-five of those girls forced into prostitution, aged between 14 and 17 years, were rescued from a brothel in Nkpor, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State. Some campaigners in Anambra State are calling for attention to Abakaliki Street in Awka, now notorious for parading commercial sex workers.
Hope Okoye described the place as the red-light street of Anambra State. “You see that Abakaliki Street in Awka, government should pay attention to that place. Let them help to rescue our children, our young girls and even boys. Go there around 7, 8, 9pm, you will weep when you see what our young girls have become. It is an ideal market for human traffickers.
“Same for Mgbuka Obosi, Nkpor, Amawbia and Obosi. Gali-gali, where those 35 or 36 that were rescued recently had been identified years ago before NAPTIP came to Anambra. Thank God that police busted them finally. There are several other places like that across the state here,” she lamented.
Such brothels and baby factories are also found in Onitsha, Nnewi, Aba, Umuahia, Abakaliki, Owerri, Enugu, and other towns. While sale of babies has been on for some time, it has assumed a troubling dimension with young pregnant ladies selling their unborn babies. The case of Ifeoma (not real name) comes to mind. The Coordinator, Network of Civil Society against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labour, NACTAL, in Ebonyi State, Mrs Lorriette Nwafor, narrated her experience.
“There was this young lady who came to Abakaliki with six-month pregnancy. Somebody who suspected that something was wrong approached her and from interactions, it was discovered that the lady was looking for a buyer for the baby in her womb. She was persuaded not to sell, and she insisted. So, we were contacted.”
A potential buyer was arranged by NACTAL, who negotiated with the lady, and she agreed for N200,000. “At that point, we came in, took her back to her parents and warned them to ensure she put to bed under their care. The girls go as far as Anambra, Lagos, and other parts of the country. When they get pregnant, they come back here in Abakaliki to sell. They won’t go to their communities.”
Connivance with institutions
Established institutions such as orphanages, hospitals, travel agencies, transportation companies, etc., are becoming increasingly complicit in the crime. A good percentage of human trafficking cases from the South-East region borders on child trafficking, which investigations revealed are perfected in connivance with operators of orphanages. The rate at which such facilities are springing up, despite government regulations, worries many residents. Several of them have remained reliable markets for child traffickers.
“That is what is reigning now. Anambra and South-East are known for sale of babies and adoption of children. The painful aspect is that most of the orphanages are opened for sale of babies,” the Co-chair, Child Rights Law Implementation Committee in Anambra State, Miss Hope Okoye, revealed.
“The other time, at Mami market, a woman deceived another poor woman whose husband was bedridden. She stole one of her twin babies, which we later recovered after five months, with the help of a female police officer and MTN, which tracked her down.”
When the baby was finally recovered, she had become fond of the unsuspecting teacher who adopted her from the orphanage. “She didn’t even recognize the real mother again, if not the blood ties with her twin. There is a lot of wickedness going on today because people have sold their conscience to the devil. Parents will be crying over missing babies while others are celebrating, and the culprits are mainly these people running orphanages.
“Where do they get those children they call motherless and orphans? It is all deceit. When we engage the children, some of them tell us their real names are different from what the operators gave them. Some of them tell you about their parents,” Miss Okoye lamented.
Certain hospitals are equally in criminal business partnership with some of the people in the orphanages and the babies sold directly to traffickers are gotten from such facilities. “The deal is either sealed with the hospital management or some unscrupulous staff. Immediately new babies are delivered, they take them away from the mothers giving some flimsy reasons such as your baby died and had been thrown away,” one of the respondents, who preferred anonymity, alleged.
Like the fate of Osinachi Ikeoha, whose baby, upon arrival, was taken away without any trace till today, uninformed, helpless parents and their relatives accept such cock and bull stories and resign to fate.
Investigations revealed that the criminals also have backers among security agents. These corrupt officials help them to evade the law. This speaks to the need to be holistic in the campaign against the crime with special attention to the seriousness of law enforcers in handling the crime.
The traffickers hardly fail in their plans as they tactfully deploy various strategies including: deception, marriage promises, fake sympathy, juicy job offers, debt bondage, among others, to harvest unsuspecting victims.
The testimony of Franklin Onyebuchi is a typical example. He was a member of a cartel whose duty was to process an international passport for a lady meant to be trafficked to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The lady, (Joy) who was rescued in the process, narrated how it all started.
“There is an aunty from Anambra State. She is lives in Benin. She told me that her uncle in Dubai needs people to work for him and since I am into pastry stuff, that I will make it there. I was happy about the offer. The uncle also called me to introduce himself and promised to help me.”
Having fallen for their tricks, arrangement was made to process her travel documents including the international passport. “I was asked to go and meet somebody in Onitsha. When I got to Onitsha, I met the man, and we went to Awka.”
They were at the Immigration office in Awka when the man, Franklin, helping her to process the passport was arrested. Franklin revealed that the man in Dubai was footing the bills all the way until his arrest. “He sent money for all we are doing including the money to process her visa and other things.”
Disturbing fact sheet
Nigeria, a source, transit, and destination country for trafficking had since 2017 been placed on the Tier 2 Watchlist of the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, a category of countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, (TVPA) 2000’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to do so.
Nigerians accounted for 21% of the 181,000 migrants who arrived in Italy through the Mediterranean in 2016, while about 21,000 Nigerian women and girls have been trafficked to Italy since 2015. According to Italian authorities, between 10,000 and 30,000 Nigerian women are working in prostitution on the streets of Italy.
According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR 2018 report, 18,000 Nigerian migrants in 2017 reportedly arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean. Out of the number, 5,400 were women. From 2014-2016, the International Organization for Migration, IOM, recorded almost 600% increase in the number of potential sex trafficking victims arriving in Italy via the Mediterranean.
A good percentage of these scary statistics is from the South-East zone. Professor Joy Ezeilo, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons lent credence to this. “I visited over hundred countries in all regions of the world, in the remotest parts of the world. I saw Nigerians in trafficked situation, those who had been smuggled and are battling for their lives, some of them in detention facilities. I recall in Morocco when I did a mission in 2012, we got to one area full of Nigerians and I can tell you, more than half of them are Igbos. I know what I saw in Algeria, Morocco, and other places.”
Human trafficking is the third most common crime in Nigeria after drug trafficking and economic fraud, according to a UNESCO 2006 report. It has remained a societal worry despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, which in article 4, prohibits holding anyone in slavery or servitude as well as slavery and slave trade in all its forms.
“People’s attention is always on Edo, they are not thinking of the cases that come from the neighboring states of Anambra and Ebonyi states, where cases of internal trafficking are rife. Within the South-East, we have this baby factory phenomenon apart from the house-help phenomenon. We have a lot of cases like that coming to our office,” disclosed Professor Ezeilo, the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Women’s Aid Collective (WACOL).
NAPTIP’s 2020 report reveals that the highest number of trafficked children in Nigeria is girls between the ages of 12-17 years. Its 2016 report indicates that 75% of those trafficked within the country are trafficked across states, 23% within states while only 2% are trafficked outside the country.
The agency attested to the disturbing surge in the incidents of human trafficking in the area. “Human trafficking is growing astronomically by the minutes with a huge market, whether it is child trafficking, labour trafficking, alms begging, sale of persons and even organ harvesting. It is ravaging our women, girls, and youths,” Mrs Nneka Ajie, the Commander, NAPTIP Enugu Zonal Command, explained.
Trafficking, a low risk, lucrative crime fueled by many factors
Human trafficking is a transnational organized crime. There are recruiters at the state of origin, the smugglers who take the victims through various routes to different destinations and those who receive them on arrival. There are also those who buy them, while some members of the cartels only serve as pimps, who search for customers for the girls. Others are saddled with the onerous task of closely monitoring the movement of the victims. Each cartel is headed by a kingpin, who controls everything, while each member is richly rewarded for his or her assigned role.
The rising wave of the crime in the South-East has been attributed to various reasons among which are poor awareness and high level of ignorance about the crime. “It is very worrisome that you want to solve a problem and those you want to solve the problem for are not seeing it as an issue,” Eucharia Onyemaobi, the State Coordinator, NACTAL in Anambra State, noted with dismay.
Apart from awareness problem, poverty, weak legal and institutional frameworks play vital roles. A new World Bank report, “A Better Future for All Nigerians: Nigeria Poverty Assessment 2022” reveals that four in ten Nigerians live below the national poverty line.
“Remember the push and pull factors. People are finding desperate ways to survive. Mothers and pregnant ladies are selling their children, a male child for between N1,000,000 and N2,000,000 while girl child is sold between N600,000 and above. For them, the end justifies the means. The traffickers take advantage of this economic vulnerability,” Professor Ezeilo bemoaned.
From interactions across different sectors of the society, NAPTIP has not been as visible as expected in the region. It has state commands only in Anambra, Imo, and Zonal Command in Enugu while Abia and Ebonyi states still operate liaison offices, with operational limitations. In the entire South-East, only the Zonal Command of the agency in Enugu has a shelter for the rehabilitation of victims and cell for keeping suspects. Also, only three states have inaugurated their task forces on human trafficking, remaining Abia and Imo states. Where the task forces exist, they are handicapped by acute funding challenge to the extent that members keep them running as the case in Anambra State.
Its Attorney-General and Task Force Chairman, Professor Sylvia Ifemeje, through her permanent representative and Solicitor General, Mrs Ngozi Iwuno, revealed: “Our activities are being funded by members. We contribute whatever we have. Unfortunately, those activities were not captured in the state budget. Besides, I think the state government is bearing a lot of burdens meant for the Federal Government.”
The invisibility of NAPTIP can easily be linked to some issues gleaned from the Enugu Zonal Command, which has recorded only thirty-two (32) convictions since inception in 2006. In 2020, the agency recorded one hundred and fifty-nine (159) cases, two hundred and sixteen (216) in 2021 and one hundred and seven (107) cases as at June 10, 2022.
Within six months of operations between June and December 2021, NAPTIP Liaison Office in Abia State recorded more than 70 cases while Anambra State Command recorded over forty cases in its almost two years of operation. Imo State Command made nine arrests between January and June 2022.
These statistics are viewed by many commentators as rather too insignificant, but the campaigners said the intricacies surrounding the crime of human trafficking make it more difficult to combat.
Also fueling the crime is the present volatile security situation, which has put community engagements on hold sine die. This helps the criminals to prey on uninformed citizens, especially rural dwellers. “We are doing our best, but we are being hampered by the heightened insecurity and hostilities. It makes it difficult for us to penetrate rural areas. But we are doing the much we can within the cities,” Imo State Commander of NAPTIP, Mr Ogbu, lamented.
Wide-spread communal clashes, aggression and greed were equally said to have exposed the most vulnerable to human trafficking, while slow prosecution of cases, according to Mr Duru, NACTAL Coordinator in Imo State, is a morale booster for the criminals. “NAPTIP has been prosecuting but they are not judiciary to pass judgment. That is where we are having issues.”
Also hampering the fight, according to NAPTIP Enugu Zonal Commander, is the cold attitude of victims and their relations to stand in the witness box. “Sometimes, we go to court armed with facts to get the suspects convicted. But you find out that victims or their relations will bluntly refuse to come and stand as witnesses. And you know, without witnesses, the case loses weight. This, for me, is most traumatic.”
Parental failure, unbridled quest for wealth and total collapse of cherished societal values leave many Nigerians, especially the youths, at the mercy of traffickers, who are making a fortune. The traffickers are equally aware of NAPTIP’s logistics and manpower challenges as well as weak judicial system. “Cases keep getting adjourned for various reasons – the defence is unavailable, or the correctional service cannot produce the defendants. Most discomforting is that some judges do not fully appreciate the concept of human trafficking and its multi-dimensional facets,” Mrs Ajie noted.
Section 13 of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act unequivocally prohibits all acts of human trafficking in Nigeria while sub-section 2 forbids anybody from recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring, or receiving another person by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion as well as abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or position of vulnerability.
With several other sections taking care of various aspects of the crime, the 2015 Act is generally adjudged stiffer and more stringent than the repealed 2003 Act in that it condemns convicted offenders to both fine and jail term. However, some of its provisions are equally described as weak and do not provide enough deterrent. Worse still is the fact that enforcement has not been as diligent as expected.
Inadequate efforts by state governments
Undoubtedly, governments of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo have in various ways complemented the actions of the Federal Government. They have all enacted their Child Rights and Violence against Persons Prohibition, (VAPP) laws, which further strengthen the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act 2015.
In Anambra, the State Solicitor-General and Permanent Representative of the Attorney General, Mrs Ngozi Anuli Iwuno, said series of sensitization campaigns have been carried out to educate the communities on the ills of human trafficking.
“On the 12th of this month [June], a woman was arrested for trafficking two under-aged females from Benue state. Over twenty-one under-aged girls were rescued from a brothel in Amawbia. They are being handled.”
Between 2021 and June this year, Ebonyi State government recorded up 25 cases of human trafficking, according to the Director, Child Development Department in the state Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mr Godwin Igwe. “Out of the 25, a philanthropist from the state gave 8 of the children scholarship. Nine were sponsored to learn any trade of their choice. We helped the parents of others to start different trades so they can cater for them. The few remaining ones, we are still planning what we will do for them within our lean resources.”
Enugu State government has been commended for its sustained assistance to the fight especially to NAPTIP Zonal Command domiciled in the area. Governments of Abia and Ebonyi states were also acknowledged by NAPTIP for their efforts so far towards boosting the anti-human trafficking war in their jurisdictions.
However, Professor Joy Ezeilo argued that there are still gaps, which must be filled. “Human trafficking is still a scourge, but the leadership in the South-East has yet to really understand its ramifications.”
NAPTIP Zonal Commander said winning the battle against the criminals is a non-negotiable goal. “NAPTIP will not only stand up to them. We will surpass them. No hiding place for them anywhere in the South-East. We are not threatened by their number, antics, and trends. We shall protect the citizens against human traffickers. So, for any case, they should call 627 and we will be there.”
The NAPTIP’s assurance notwithstanding, respondents identified partnership, one of the agency’s 5Ps strategies, as sacrosanct. “This fight falls within the purview of any state government. It is giving Nigeria such a bad name. The State governments should continue to partner with the Federal Government, civil society organisations and even the private sector. Everyone has to come on board.”
Advocacy, the people noted, must be designed towards ensuring the task forces on human trafficking are inaugurated in Abia and Imo states, while stakeholders are made to forge a common front against it. Funding and logistics provisions must be made by federal and state governments. This, they argued will help to bring the fight home and mobilize the populace against the criminals.
“Addressing poverty and economic vulnerability would also help,” one of the campaigners noted.
“There must be social security and safety net for the vulnerable. We are not taking care of our population. We don’t have programmes that address the growing population in Nigeria and huge youth unemployment. The root causes must be addressed, and government must lead the way.”
Intensive sensitization must be beefed up, especially in rural localities, even as incorporating issues of trafficking in persons in the curricula of basic and high schools, was equally suggested, to reach the vulnerable children with necessary information, which can arm them against the craftiness of the traffickers.
Training and retraining of other law enforcement agents, who partner NAPTIP in the campaign is also recommended. “As NAPTIP trains its staff and the CSOs, I suggest other law enforcement agencies such as the Police, DSS, FRSC, NSCDC, Immigration, etc., must also be trained and retrained. This is very important because they sometimes arrest them before calling us,” NACTAL Coordinator in Anambra, Onyemaobi noted.
The respondents unanimously submitted that adequate funding would help to raise the bar in the fight, failing which some gains might be reversed. “A girl was rescued from Oyo State and before we could raise funds to empower her, she ran back to Oyo State. If you rescue and do not empower them, some of them end up being re-trafficked,” NACTAL Coordinator in Ebonyi State, Mrs Nwafor, lamented.
For the Solicitor-General of Anambra State, domesticating the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015, to reflect the peculiarities of each state, is equally imperative. “We are working on a partnership with IOM to get the NAPTIP law domesticated. States have peculiar aspects of this crime. For us in Anambra State, illegal migration is also a concern because our young men want to leave the country. We have lost so many promising young men, who embarked on such dangerous trips.”
Since this is a regional concern, the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the respondents noted, must rise to the occasion to halt the dangerous drift threatening to destroy the region.
Above all, those involved in the anti-human trafficking war are encouraged to sustain the battle against the criminals despite all identified inhibitions. “I don’t believe that finances and other problems should stop anyone. This is something we need to do for humanity. I believe as we progress, things will get better,” the Solicitor General of Anambra State said.
This Report is part of activities by the African Center for Transparency (ACT)/Ikenga Media under the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development Inclusivity and Accountability Project, a multi-level intervention for media independence and government accountability, managed by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) and supported by MacArthur Foundation.
