Roland Ogbonnaya
5 July 2009
Lagos — The National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other Related Matters {NAPTIP}, recently convicted three human traffickers. The traffickers, which include Jonah Osaarimwan, 25, Patience Aisomwan, 30, and Helen Aisomwan were sentenced to two years imprisonment without an option of fine.
While Patience and Helen Aisomwan were sentenced to one-year imprisonment each for their role in the procurement of 17 young girls to a human trafficker, Gladys Joy Okonta, 30, for trafficking abroad. Both sentences are without an option of fine.
In the case of Okonta who is standing trial on charges of procurement and organising foreign travels for 17 young girls, which promotes exploitative sex trade, Justice Okeke reserved judgment for July 28 2009. Delivering the judgment, Justice Okeke reiterated the stand of the court as the last hope for justice for victims of human trafficking, as she insisted that the accused person's plea of guilt does not mitigate the offence as preferred against them.
The Executive Secretary of NAPTIP, Simon Chuzi Egede, a lawyer, said the judgment is a strong statement in the condemnation of the crime of trafficking and a complete support of the judiciary arm to finally rid the nation of the crime. He said human trafficking is a sad commentary due to collapse of family values as it has become a family business, judging that the two female traffickers were from the same family who showed lack of respect for their own family as well as to life of the young and vulnerable ones.
Egede told THISDAY in Abuja recently that NAPTIP has been and will always be a trafficker's worst nightmare. He stated that the rate at which the courts are prosecuting these cases and securing convictions clearly shows a strong level of collaboration among "our partners and stakeholders. This conviction brings to 14 of the number of convictions secured by Sokoto Zonal Office of NAPTIP and 57 of the number of traffickers brought to justice by the agency since inception."
The Executive Secretary said the human traffickers who think that with the change in the leadership of the organisation would slow the campaign against the illicit business should better have a rethink because he has resolved to haunt them wherever they are. Egede who assumed duty as the boss of the organisation few months ago, while basking in the latest conviction by the courts however explained some of the challenge in the campaign against human trafficking.
"As you are very much aware, NAPTIP is a law enforcement agency and as with other law enforcement agencies, we deal with the crime of trafficking in persons and the major challenge that one would allude to would be the nature of the crime. The traffickers themselves are very much organised. They go into the villages and every nook and cranny of the country and lure the vulnerable children and women with false messages, coercion and all sorts of false presentations.
"The victims themselves do not know what they are getting into. Most times, they buy what these people feed them with and then begin to dream of the financial wealth that would come out of these foreign trips. So the major challenge is even when they are apprehended, the victims are not ready to tell us all about the perpetrators of these evil trips. The more dangerous aspect of it is the fact that many of them are taken to the shrines and other institutions where oath of secrecy is administered on them," he said. On the other hand, he said some of the victims are threatened with death if they should reveal the identity of the traffickers. So it becomes very difficult for them to tell the story that would enable the agency apprehend a full time trafficker. Again the Act, like all other laws is a public document which people are aware of, but there is the challenge where people are not able to accept or reconcile themselves with the provision of the Act vis-à-vis the cultural belief of the people.
For instance, Egede noted that the area of internal trafficking- the syndrome of housewife and house girl, culturally is part of the society where a boy serves a master or a man brings his uncle's or aunt's daughter to take care of his children. Also, a businessman brings a young girl or boy to be an apprentice and all that. These, he said, are the areas the agency wants to reconcile between cultural practices and the law, because it is realised that children and their parents were actually being exploited.
He said, "You bring somebody from the village and he/she lives with you, does not earn any money or go to school as he or she should while your own children are going to school. The people in the village believe that the children are living better lives over there in the city but the world knew and we have all come to agree that this is exploitation and child labour which must not continue. Some times, we have inadequate financial cooperation in the area of investigation and deportation of traffickers in destination countries."
According to investigation, a lot of Nigerians are trafficked into some North African countries where they are promised a passage to Europe as most of the trafficking is perpetrated across the land boarders in the Northern part of the country. Despite the efforts of the men and officers of the Nigerian Immigration and Police, because of the massive land boarder of the country, it is not possible to mount check points on every major road, so traffickers still find other illegal routes out of the country. Having succeeded in leaving the country, they go through other hideouts and camp in Niger, Libya and Morocco, en-route to Europe, hence the concentration of many Nigerian victims in those countries.
Efforts have been made in the past; including NAPTIP officials in collaboration with other agencies in the country to have these stranded illegal immigrants deported. "Indeed, I would want to say that these countries take the menace very seriously. In Libya for instance, where official information is received, it is treated very promptly and these illegal immigrants are handed over to the police and are deported immediately. But as with other trans-national criminal organisations, traffickers have huge financial outlay at their disposal to influence concerned authorities in these countries and do all that it takes to avoid being caught up by the law," Egede said.
The NAPTIP boss further told THISDAY that he is aware of the sophistication the traffickers are devising to carry out their illegal businesses. He however said that his agency is always ready to combat such acts. "It is true that their antics are becoming more and more sophisticated. But we have also been able to collaborate with several international organisations as well as adopt a national plan of action, which has been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and adopted by ECOWAS Council of Ministers.
"This kind of action is a comprehensive document which encompasses all strategies to deal with these problems. We have opened a new office in Maiduguri, which makes it three within the northern part of the country. The essence is to have operatives in those zonal offices that can easily be mobilised to the boarders to check trafficking and to apprehend traffickers. Again with the support of some European countries, we have developed several software and material. We have some materials that when traffickers are arrested and apprehended, their handset can be taken to our computer and all calls and messages within a period of time can be monitored and accessed.
"This is a very good technical assistant that we have received and only last month, the Italian government also donated another modern equipment (software) where we can also intercept some of these people within a particular area and our investigators would be able to follow the trend in trafficking and communication and other gathering of information would become easier and effective. So we thank the governments of those countries and our sponsors for being able to equip us in the most modern technology in this fight and I dare say we are one of the first that is being equipped with these technologies. We are very well equipped and focused on the fight and I believe our officers are equal to the task too," the NAPTIP boss said.
He said the fight is in two forms: internally and within the boarders. The internal trafficking, he pointed out, gives a bit of headache because it has been very much entrenched in the cultural values. For instance, Egede mentioned the case of child begging in some parts of the country. Another difficult area is where 'madams' who run restaurants and beer palours recruit these young hands to help out in the running of such place, but unfortunately, many of them eventually turns out to become prostitutes under the supervision of their 'madam.'
He said these young girls are given away to their customers after they have patronised the restaurant. If NAPTIP want to intervene, the girls would not tell the real story as they leave in fear of being returned to the villages and so they are prepared to obey the instructions of the people who have brought them to the cities. While on the other hand, young able bodied men are moved to cocoa farms in the western part of the country where they do hard labour without worthwhile remuneration.
"All these lie in our tradition where unsuspecting parents back home entrust their children and wards to these people who promise to give them better lives, not knowing that they are used for forced labour. These are the issues we are facing and we believe that the main focus should be public enlightenment so that we inform parents the intention of those that take their children and promise them better lives but turn out not to be true.
In that regard, Egede said all its zonal offices have been provided with some form of sensitization materials to inform the people about the trade so that they can devise means to reject juicy but fake promises of the traffickers. He believes that when people are aware of the real intentions of the traffickers, they would become less vulnerable.
He said "we are pleased to inform that the United States government has undertaken a project on public awareness, they have voted a very large sum of money for it and they are bringing an officer from Washington for this purpose. We believe that by the time it takes off more people will be aware of the evil of human trafficking and then prepare themselves against the traffickers and their antics. We have also been in touch with Wale Adenuga Productions (WAP) for the production of a television drama series. If we have money to execute this, it will be very successful because over 50 million Nigerians would watch the programme.
All these to Egede are testimonies that the organisation is making progress in the fight against human trafficking. "We are indeed making good progress; the statistics are very clear as we have stepped up our prosecution of the traffickers. I am pleased to report that recently, within one week we have had nine convictions. These people have been sentenced to jail terms without options of fine. We believe that these will give a clear message and signal to the traffickers that it cannot be business as usual. Again we have rehabilitated over 3,000 victims, and some of them were trained in various vocations.
"We are also supporting the rescued victims with finance to enable them establish small businesses. Many of them have made progress and are now useful to the society. We have also raised a very high level of awareness, traveled around the country and worked with Nigerian communities in various countries to see how they would come in to assist in the rehabilitation of the victims. So we have made a lot of progress in the spate of five years; we have also established various offices and accommodations in various parts of the country," the executive secretary stated.
The organisation, he stressed, has been making so much progress that it was not surprised that the United Nation during its 2009 annual global report on trafficking in persons, Nigeria was elevated from tier two to tier one. Tier one meaning that it is the highest level of classification and through the hard work of his predecessor, Chief Mrs. Carol Ndaguba and the team she put in place, the agency has been able to achieve this feat in just five years. However, he believes with more vigour and determination, NAPTIP would sustain its status in tier one.
The elevation to tier one by the US Government definition, Egede said, is that the Nigerian government now fully complies with all efforts to eradiate trafficking in persons. That is to say that the country has put in place all necessary machineries, while government has shown that it is prepared to stop the menace by giving financial and all manner of support to ensure that trafficking in persons is eradicated.
"So to that extent, it shows that we have reached the level where the world is satisfied that we are doing what it takes to battle the traffickers. We have reached the level where the traffickers themselves would begin to feel that they are up against the law of the nation and that is very important. Again, it is very important because we are now in a position where we can get the maximum support and cooperation for their efforts," a former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Benue State said.
He emphasised that the conviction of the 13 traffickers recently would send a clear signal to traffickers that the road is now tough and it is not business as usual. He commended the Nigerian Police, Immigration Service and the Judiciary for a job well done. "As you know, ours is a small agency and we rely very much on the collaborative action of these agencies. Most of the arrests that are made are by the police and immigration services. I must say that the judiciary has helped us so well because each case taken to court are held by very reputable judges and emphasis is not on option of fines, but jail terms. We are happy that the judiciary is living up to expectation and is also giving the maximum sentences and jail terms to the convicts," Egede said with a sense of fulfillment. Consequently, THISDAY investigation showed that the National Assembly has aided the work of the agency by giving it a comprehensive law to guide its operations. The Act itself has provision for assets confiscation and sales, and use proceeds for the benefit of victims. It is established under the board headed by the Attorney General of the Federation. Once conviction is secured and assets of the trafficker connected with the crimes are traced and identified, NAPTIP goes back to the court with a motion for orders of the court to enable it have them confiscated and sold.
Once the Court grants this, the movable and immoveable assets are sold and the proceeds are paid into the Victims of Trafficking Trust Funds. The agency however, has not succeeded so much in assets confiscation and sales because it does not have the technical knowledge and most of the traffickers as with other criminal organisations are based mainly in Europe, while those arrested in Nigeria are mere agents.
However, two of the convictions NAPTIP secured recently involved the prosecution of a proprietor of a brothel in Lagos. Those are the rare cases where it actually apprehended the core people in the business that kept young girls and exploit daily. The agency has secured his conviction and the next thing the agency said it will do is to apply to the court to have the brothel confiscated and sold and proceeds paid into the coffers of the Trafficking Trust Fund.
To seriously tackle or fight human trafficking, there is a need to look critically on what the law says about house helps because all these areas are captured in the NAPTIP Act. Egede said if a girl of about 25 to 30 years old who chose to go into prostitution as a profession, that is her choice. "Here we are talking of children who are not matured and cannot decide for themselves and are being lured into these places and then exploited.
"The Child Right Act is very clear that a child of that certain age should be in school. So all we are now trying to do in collaboration with the state is to sensitise them to implement the child right act and the states that have not implemented them, we are urging them to adopt them. Once this Child Right Act is put together, you won't have young girls and boys that are being used as hawkers and street vendors. This is a challenge that we are all determined to face," he emphasised.
Though he added that poverty and economic backwardness is part of the problem, but he quickly argued that it is not all of it that is economic. For example, he said Edo State is in the forefront of human trafficking and most of the people apprehended are from that state, despite a lot of campaign in those areas.
Again, he insisted that poverty is a major factor that lures people into the hands of the traffickers, but maintained that it is not an excuse that should be encouraged. He, therefore, warned prospective traffickers that NAPTIP like never before has been strategically positioned to go after them. "We will snuff them out from wherever they are," Egede said.
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