Francis Ogbuagu 
Human trafficking
In an attempt to nip in the bud the menace of human trafficking, the Edo Zone of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), has rescued over 100 victims.
This is as it has also empowered five survivors of human trafficking in Edo and Delta states between 2023 and this year.
The zone which used to be the epicentre of human trafficking in Nigeria has also recorded sizable numbers of convictions within the same time.
Epicentre rescue girl
In the wake of the 21st Century, Edo State became a reference point for human trafficking and irregular migration. The State accounted for the highest proportion of irregular migrants in Nigeria.
Young girls in Edo State were enticed with false promises to leave Nigeria and travel abroad for a better life by the traffickers.
The traffickers in the State also manipulate their victims using diabolical oath and debt bondage to control their victims, thereby forcing them into modern slavery, forced labour, and sex trafficking among others.
This development led to the formation of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), a federal government law enforcement agency, created on July 14, 2003 by the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act of 2003 to combat human trafficking and other similar human rights violations.
Also, the wife of the former State Governor, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, Mrs Eki Igbinedion, founded Idia Renaissance, a nongovernmental civil society organization, with the aim of combating human trafficking, including reception of victims of human trafficking.
Similarly, the administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki in 2017 founded the Edo State Taskforce Against Human Trafficking (ETAHT), saddled with the responsibility of rescuing, training, resettling and reintegration of victims of human trafficking into the society.
In March 2022, ETAHT reported it has received 5,142 returnees, who were victims of human trafficking. According to ETAHT, 614 returnees were trained and N101million spent to support the victims.
Empowerment
At the same vein, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), trying to reintegrate some of the rescued victims in Edo Zone, which comprises Edo and Delta states, presented a business starter packs to three survivors in Benin City, Edo State.
Presenting the starter packs, the former NAPTIP’s Zonal Commander, Mr Nduka Nwanwenne, who has been redeployed to the headquarters in Abuja, said the agency is currently prosecuting more than 64 traffickers in various courts in the two states.
According to him, empowerment was part of the agency’s strat – egy for survivors to be reintegrated into the society and earn a living.
“We have many survivors to be empowered, but we have to empower these three first. We gave them sewing machines so that they could be engaged and would be able to give evidence in court against their traffickers.”
He explained that the empowerment of the three survivors was critical because two of them had babies while the third was pregnant. Nwanwenne further stated that the survivors were trafficked to Germany, Russia and Mali respectively, where they were exploited by their traffickers for years.
“We believe that when they have a means of livelihood, they will not be vulnerable to trafficking,’’ he added.
Earlier, the agency also empowered two survivors with industrial sewing machines, big generators, driers with their accessories, mannequins, weavons and jacuzzi.
Among the ladies empowered was a 24 years old woman from Edo State, (whose name is withheld for security reasons), said she was trafficked to Ghana in 2019, where she spent two years while the other from Agbor, Delta State is 22 years and ended up in Burkina Fasso for a few months in 2021 for sexual exploitation until she was rescued by NAPTIP.
Menace
Nwanwenne lamented that the scourge of human trafficking has not abated despite the determined efforts of the agency to tackle it, adding that NAPTIP goes the extra mile of providing for the needs of the young girls after they have been rescued and freely counselled traffickers, noting that the agency has succeeded in securing the conviction of the trafficker of the young lady from Agbor, who was sentenced to seven years and a fine of N12 million.
The zonal commander said sadly that there have been cases of beneficiaries who sold the items given to them by the agency to start another life. Nwanwenne said: “I will be happy if your businesses flourish so that nobody will come and sexually exploit you again.
Victims are trafficked without the knowledge of their parents. Your success is our joy. Don’t sell the items. They are for your usage. We will go all the way to further support you.”
The fourth in the series of empowerment programmes this year by NAPTIP, he said that the initiative was borne out of the determination of the Director General, Prof. Fatima Waziri-Azi, to tackle the obnoxious practice by going all the way to rehabilitate the victims.
The zonal commander added: “Taking care of victims is central to the mandate of NAPTIP and not just the rescue of victims. This is an agency with a human face.
NAPTIP goes to correctional centres to see how those who are convicted for human trafficking serve their terms. “We must commend the Director General, Prof. Fatima WaziriAzi, for the different empowerment programmes.
This is the fourth this year and is a result of her determination to ensure a better life for the victims. Only last month, she provided items from the headquarters in Abuja for the empowerment of rescued victims.”
Elated, the mothers of the two rescued ladies were full of praises for the efforts of the anti-human agency in going all the way to rehabilitate the ladies after freeing them.
Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has since assuming office not shy away from tackling the menace of human trafficking, knowing fully well that his State and Delta are noted as the epicentres of human trafficking in the country.
While the governor has involved various projects alongside his wife, the First Lady of the State, Mrs Betsy Obaseki, in addressing the matter, he, however, blamed the development on inconsistency in the education system of the country among others.
Edo govt’s position
Speaking recently, he disclosed that his government has focused on reforming and strengthening the state’s education system using the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation.
Aside the reforms in the education sector, he also attributed the success recorded by the state government to the programmes and projects adopted to equip and build the capacity of Edo youths to become globally competitive.
According to him, “Re-enacting basic education in the state has thrown up several issues and shows us the dislocation in our educational policies and how it’s affecting the whole chain.
The breakdown of our basic education is one of the root causes of irregular migration and has led to human trafficking in the state “We embarked on EdoBEST to change the narrative. We decided to set up an education fund to encourage more students to go to school.
We also focused on teachers to improve the learning standards. Five years on, we can now see a reversal and rapid improvement in learning outcomes.”
He further noted, “When we came into office, we had a big problem. Our young people did not want to stay here anymore; they all wanted to emigrate. The traffickers had a full day.
The reputation of this state was at its lowest ebb. ‘‘We had transport services in this town who on a nightly basis carted away young people with a promise of taking them to Europe or somewhere they could get a better life.
At one point in time, we had over 30,000 young men and women waiting in Libya to cross over to Europe. “It was the number one issue we had to face coming into office and in trying to understand what was going on, it was clear that our society had failed our young ones.
To them, anywhere else but home and for us, that was dangerous. “We realised that if we did not tackle this problem, we would have a social failure. The first thing we did was to admit that we had a problem.
Before I came as a governor nobody wanted to talk about it because to them it was a source of foreign exchange and a tree that was supporting families. But we came in and had the courage to say we cannot continue this way.
No scapegoat
“Working with the IOM, we were able to set up our task force and promulgate our own laws regulating human trafficking in Edo State such that for every flight bringing in returnees, we had officials of Edo State government go into those planes and welcome our children back home.
In that process we were able to collect enough data to unravel the root cause of the crisis – the quality of our basic educational system.
“The quality of our basic educational system had broken down and children were no longer learning; teachers were not being paid and that was when we cried for help and decided that we had to focus on foundational education.
When we went to the World Bank, they promised to support us. “With the support of partners in the World Bank, with people at UNICEF coming onboard, we have been able to key into the current thinking that foundational education matters; it’s what is most important in any system.”
“The EdoBEST programme has been acclaimed a success globally. We have, with the support of the World Bank and financing we have received through the Program-for-Results (PforR), ensured that the EdoBEST programme has come to stay.
We have moved to EdoBEST 2.0, beyond foundational education, to see where children who have benefited from the solid foundation move to in the education spectrum, considering how to fix middle and technical education and provide more vocations for these children.’’
