Agency secures 65 convictions since inception

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Daily Triumph
THURSDAY NOVEMBER . 12 2009

Agency secures 65 convictions since inception

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has secured 65 convictions of traffickers since its inception.

Twenty-four of the convictions were secured within eight months of the year, with Sokoto state recording 10.

Mr Simon Egede, the Executive Secretary of the agency, made the announcement in Abuja at a news conference in commemoration of this year's anti-human trafficking week, with the theme: ``Join The Fight; Make A Change."

He said the agency hoped to secure more convictions, with more than 88 other cases still pending in various courts in the country.

Egede said that with the 2005 amendment of the agency's law, it was given the mandate to criminalise the keeping of brothels and house helps.

He warned operators of brothels to shut them down and invest in something more useful to society to avoid losing their property.

The executive secretary noted that the agency had carried out public awareness campaigns in Edo state and at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka during the last Nigerian University Games Association (NUGA).

He said the agency had also engaged stakeholders and relevant organisations in developing a blue print to counter the growing menace of illegal adoption of children in the country.

``The objective is to strengthen the capacity of stakeholders and oversight organisations, by developing stronger monitoring mechanism that will combat the growing trend," he said.

Egede announced that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved the National Policy for the Protection and Assistance of Victims of Trafficking, which had also been adopted by ECOWAS.

``The policy will serve as a guideline to all service providers in the rehabilitation of victims and also as an instrument for member-countries to use as rehabilitation and integration programme for victims,'' he added.

Egede said between 2003 and 2009, no fewer than 4,000 victims passed through the seven shelters of the agency, and received counseling as well as training in various vocations, while some were in school.

``Out of the 4,000, Edo state accounts for 864, Akwa Ibom, 404; Kano 298; Cross River 259; Delta 202; Imo 88; Ebonyi 86; Anambra 75; Enugu 62; Benue 61; Plateau and Kwara 59 each," he said.

He appealed to state governments to urgently make access to education compulsory and free, saying the Child Rights Act was a mechanism to improve the quality of life of every Nigerian child.

``State governments which have yet to sign the Act are inadvertently encouraging the dreadful deprivation of future leaders," he added.

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