Human Trafficking
SATURDAY PUNCH
LOST, FOUND BUT LONELY. RESCUED IN TOGO, 9-YEAR-OLD YEARNS FOR PARENTS
Since December last year nine-year-old Joseph has lived without the motherly love enjoyed by many of his peers. Rescued from human traffickers in Togo after he was abducted in Nigeria along with his 12-year-old sister, the little boy has since made the Ikoyi, Lagos office of National Agency for the prohibition of Traffickers in persons and other related offences (NAPTIP) his abode.
Saturday Punch gathered that Togolese policemen found little Joseph in Aflao, a border town where he recounted his ordeal. He had told the Togolese authorities how a certain woman called Efua visited their home in his parents’ absence one morning and offered to take him and his 12-year-old sister, Faustina, to their mother’s shop. They had followed her in their innocence, not knowing thatE fua had planned to take them far away from their home to Togo where she would traffic them. We got to Togo that day and sister Efua took us to a big market where people slept. We spent the night there with her, but when we woke up the following morning, we could not find sister Efua, “Joseph said. While he could not tell what purpose the market served, the head of the Lagos Zonal office of NAPTIT, Mr. Godwin Morka, explained that Togolese Police actually found Joseph and Faustina together at the border town.
Joseph said that he and Faustina had gone in search of Efua; they ran into a certain man who noted their desperation and decided to help them. “We told him we were looking for sister Efua, and he called the police, “Joseph said. The two siblings were then handed over to the Terres Hommes, an international NGO against human trafficking. Unfortunately, a twist crept into their story as Faustina disappeared on December 23, 2009.
Describing what happened Morka said,Faustina had repeatedly asked the Terres Des Hommes officials to take her back home. Each time, she was assured that something was being done. Not convinced by the assurances, she decided to take her destiny into her own hands. dealer in local gin.
Their father’s name was given as Jacob Radieko Godwin,Morka said. When our correspondent visited little Joseph in his temporary home at NAPTIP shelter in , he seemed to have forgotten the events that led to his separation from his family. His basic needs like food, clothing and shelter were being met. Expressing his desire to see his parents once again, Joseph said he would be able to identify them if he sees them. Will his longing for his parents become a reality? Only time would tell.
VANGUARD
HUMAN TRAFFICKERS AND THE LAW
Man’s inhumanity to man aptly captures the arrest of 67 women and children in a cargo container by vigilant policemen at Amukoko, a suburb of Lagos last weekend. The lorry was stopped for routine checks. Opening the container led to the discovery of frail and hungry looking human being believed to be Nigerians, falsely imprisoned women was reportedly delivered of a premature baby, hours after the arrest. The driver confessed he was working for an unnamed rich man. Vigorous campaighs by the government and bodies like WOTCLEF and IDIA Renaissance against human trafficking has not stopped some Nigerian from this dastard crime against humanity. Trafficking would not continue without buyers and there would be no cargoes without the acute poverty that is wrecking the land. It is preposterous those centuries after the abolition of slave trade, some Nigerians out of sheer greed treat human being with dignity not fit for animals.
How did the driver escape the law from Borno State to Lagos? What then did100 hundred of policemen who mount roadblocks over the country do? The Government should use the present case to stamp its determination to curb human trafficking. We ask forthorough investigation so that those the driver represents are prosecuted. This practice could be more wild spread than the few cases that get public attention.
Vanguard abhors conducts that diminish the dignity of human life. The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria generously provides against such acts. According to section 34(1): Every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person. No person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment. No person shall be in slavery or servitude: and No person shall be required to perform forced or compulsory Labour Governments should also note that this case is another measure of the poverty index, especially those aspects that official statistics never capture. While not supporting families that engage in these activities, they must be in dire straits to sell their own.
Poverty reduction programmes have operated mainly on the theoretical realm. Those behind human trafficking have committed crimes against humanity. They must face the full wrath of the law, no matter who they are, we are interested in the outcome of this case and hope investigations are not inclusive as happened in past cases
DAILY CHAMPION
BOY, 14, IN DANGER AFTER SURVIVING RITUAL MURDER
A 14 year old boy is clinging on to life after surviving ritual murder last Sunday at a Lagos suburb as his condition deteriorates. Charles Idem, whose home town in Akwa-Ibom State is not known by press-time, survived being beheaded by his assailants in Abule-Ado, a village Off Badagry Expressway,on Sunday afternoon and was taken to the General Hospital, , for medical attention.
Reporters who visited the hospital said Charles, who received deep knife cuts on the back of his neck, appears that he was also losing cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) which connects the brain to the spinal cord, with medical experts saying that this could lead to other complications that might result in brain damage, if he survived his present condition.
A source in the hospital said that on admission on Sunday, Charles was able to swallow food but he could no longer eat and had been manifesting symptoms that showed he had lost a lot of CSF.
The sources, however, said arrangements were completed yesterday by the management of the hospital to transfer him to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Ide-Araba where a neuro-surgeon would take over his examination and treatment. Isoslo General Hospital management which had spent its money to buy drugs not available in its pharmacy to treat Charles had to transfer him because it does not have a neuro-surgeon.
Residents of the hospital’s neighbourhood; the hospital’s staff and patients as well as other concerned citizens have donated drugs and cash to ensure the survival of Charles. They called on the Federal and Lagos State Governments to step into the boy’s case and ensure that he not only survived, but that the perpetrators of the act were arrested.
Charles ordeal began at the age of four, when his father brought him to Lagos because of his separation from the mother, according to sources. When his father remarried, he handed him over to a friend with whom he was staying until the fateful day that the friend of his father, in the company of other unknown people, took him to a bush in Abule-Ado where they perpetrated the act on him.
In loneliness of the bush, his assailants asked him to look into a pit containing fishes and as he was doing that, they pushed him into it and reportedly started to behead him. His life was saved, according to sources, by a farmer in the desolate area, who heard his painful screams, observed what was happening and alerted other villagers who called in men of the Operation Sweep, a special security outfit of the Lagos State Government. On sighing the Operation Sweep, the men fled and Charles was rescued from the pit and rushed to the Isolo General Hospital by the security men.
CHANNELS TELEVISION
POLICE NABS CHILD TRAFFICKERS IN NIGER STATE
The Police in Niger State on Tuesday arrested two suspected child traffickers along the ever busy Kontagora Yaui Road. The suspects, Shehu Jubril and Salisu Rabiu were in possession of twenty one children, aged between 12 and 15 years, who could not establish their relationship with the men or tell where they were heading to. On interrogation by men of the Niger State Police Command, the suspects who claimed to be relatives of the children and taking them from Jigawa to Niger state could not identify the children by their names or remember their parents’ names.
Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer, Niger State Command, Pius Edobor noted that what raised the curiosity of the Police team on a regular patrol on the road was the inability of the suspects to give satisfactory accounts of where they got the children from.
The police spokesman also revealed that on questioning, the children could not state their mission to Niger state and also deny any relationship with the suspects. The suspects are currently being detained at the Criminals Investigation Department of the Niger State police command.
To also help these dying children, you can donate to unicef via their website only: http://wwww.unicef.org They are doing a great work on safe guarding the lives of vulnerable children worldwide
.jpg)
.jpg)
Purchase terrors of War on Amazon