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  • Joy as human trafficking victim reunites with family after 20 years

    Joy as human trafficking victim reunites with family after 20 years

    There was joy and excitement in Akwa Ibom State on Saturday as a victim (name withheld) of human trafficking was reunited with her family after 20 years.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the human trafficking victim was reunited with her family by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and Other Related Offences (NAPTIP).

    The victim was reunited with her mother (name withheld) at the palace of Idu Uruan Village Head in Uruan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom.

    According to NAPTIP, the victim was taken away at the age of six from Idu Uruan to Benin City by a woman who gave her out to another woman.

    Ijeoma Uduak, Commander of NAPTIP, Benin Zone said the two women had been arrested by the agency.

    “Prosecution is ongoing to ensure that justice prevails. Our task here is to fulfil part of our mandate as an agency that is against human trafficking, and one that rescues and reunites victims with their families.

    “This victim was taken away from the classroom at the age of six, she had no contact with her family for several years.

    “Her captor must have used all manner of tricks to deceive the young and innocent mind; today we celebrate breakthrough and freedom,” Uduak said.

    It was learnt that the victim’s mother expressed joy that her daughter returned home after 20 years.

    “Our belief at home was that she is dead, nobody believes that we shall meet her again, we are thankful to God Almighty,” the mother said.

    She also commended the Federal Government and NAPTIP for their commitment to tackling human trafficking.

  • Buhari appoints Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim as DG, NAPTIP

    Buhari appoints Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim as DG, NAPTIP

    President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Mrs Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim as the new Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).

    Malam Garba Shehu, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, confirmed this in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.

    A holder of BSc (Sociology), Masters of Arts (Management) and Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degrees, Mrs Sulaiman-Ibrahim, hails from Nasarawa State.

    Until her new appointment, she was a member of the Nasarawa State Economic Advisory Council as well as Special Adviser on Strategic Communication to the Minister of State for Education.

  • NAPTIP rescues 132 victims of human trafficking in A’Ibom- DG

    NAPTIP rescues 132 victims of human trafficking in A’Ibom- DG

    The Director-General of the agency, Dame Julie Okah-Donli, disclosed this during an interactive with newsmen in Uyo on Thursday.

    She said 40 of the victims were rescued from sex exploitation, 28 from baby sellers, 23 from labour exploitation, while others were for other sundry exploitation issues.

    Okah-Donli said that the ages of the rescued victims ranged from five months to 34 years.

    She said 40 per cent of them were from the Oron axis of the state because of its strategic trade location as a gateway to the Atlantic

    Okah-Donli said that the establishment of the State Task Forces on Human Trafficking was a component part of the agency’s strategic thrust aimed at expanding its frontiers.

    She explained that the task force was to enhance state and non-state multi-sectoral response toward combating human trafficking in Nigeria.

    The director-general also said it was aimed at enhancing comprehensive prevention and coordinated legal and other services for trafficked victims through capacity building, technical assistance and institutional development.

    “The overall objective of the task force is the coordination and reactivation of technical inter-agency cooperation meetings with key stakeholders.

    ” They include donors, development partners, law enforcement agencies, MDAs and NGOs to enhance the capacities of state and non-state actors as well as multi-sectoral response towards improving partnerships.

    “These partnerships are aimed at the prevention of human trafficking, protection of victims of human trafficking, offer access to justice for victims of trafficking, prosecution of traffickers.

    ”The partnership is also aimed at enhancing the process of successful restoration of victims of trafficking to the state of physical, psychological, social, vocational and economic well being,’’ she said.

    Okah-Donli commended the Nigerian Navy and other sister security agencies in the state for their continued assistance to the agency in combating human trafficking.

    She solicited for continued support, adding that more would be achieved with increased support from the media, religious and traditional institutions.

    In his remark, the Project Officer, Counter Trafficking and Mixed Migration in the International Organisation for Migration, Mrs Betham Ngurum, said the agency had rescued over 17, 000 Nigerians involved in illegal migration in Libya, Mali and other parts of the world since 2017.

    Ngurum said that over 6, 771 of them had so far been rehabilitated with 45 of them from Akwa Ibom.

  • Boys, not girls more vulnerable to rape in Nigeria – NAPTIP

    Boys, not girls more vulnerable to rape in Nigeria – NAPTIP

    The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has revealed that presently young boys in Nigeria are more vulnerable to rape than girls.

    The Director General of agency Dame Julie Okah-Donli said this is because people tend to focus more on girls not realising that the rape of boys is on the rise.

    She said that it is really annoying the number of silly videos being shared and reposted of child pornography on the internet, promising that she will arrest anyone that shares such video or stigmatizes against victims.

    Okah-Donli added that she is not an advocate of capital punishments such as death penalty for rapists because it will make perpetrators more brutal, because they will not want to leave witnesses to their crimes.

    The DG said this Saturday in Abuja at the flagoff of the ‘Cover me’ campaign aimed at exposing at exposing perpetrators of child abuse, advocate for stricter punishment for rapists and advocate for stronger mechanism for preventing approach.

    She said, “I do not advocate for capital punishment of death sentence because it will make rapists become brutal because they will not want to leave witnesses and it will also encourage jungle justice with people using it to accuse and kill people falsely.

    “Boys are more vulnerable to rape because we tend to focus more on girls so we need to focus on all our children. Now you see a lot of silly videos with people sharing and reposting, If you send it to me I will arrest you for child pornography, anyone who stigmatizes against victims will be punished. We need to make people know that we are serious.

    “During the lockdown, a lot of things where revealed to us, we realized that most of the reports we got was from observant neighbors and not parents.”

    Coordinator Cover me project, Barr. Ugo Nwafor explained that his organization has set up a one million man online petition to implement capital punishment to stop rape, child defilement and child abuse in the country.

    He said that capital punishment if implemented an curb rape, defilement and abuse by 60%.

    He said that the cover me project will also embark upon the distribution of clothing items to children in rural areas all over the country because they believe that the contant nudity of little children in rural areas might also encourage paedophiles.

  • NAPTIP head office closes down for COVID-19 decontamination, workers go on leave

    Director-General, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Julie Okah-Donli, has ordered the closure of the agency’s head office for a week to enable full decontamination of the building.

    The closure will be between June 22 and June 27.

    Okah-Donli gave the directive in a statement signed by NAPTIP’s Head of Media and Publicity of, Mrs Stella Nezan, in Abuja.

    She said that the directive was in compliance with the protocol of COVID-19 prevention.

    She took the measure following a report that two NAPTIP officers came in contact with a woman who died of novel coronavirus on June 15.

    The director-general noted that the agency worked during the full lockdown of the country as one of the essential services providers.

    She said that working as an essential services provider during the lockdown was inline with the Federal Government directives through the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.

    “All officers are to go on a week leave in accordance with NCDC guidelines to enable the agency decontaminate its premises.

    “In the meantime, all officers in the agency’s headquarters will be tested for COVID-19 before returning to work,” the director-general said.

    She assured all NAPTIP stakeholders and partners that the operations of the agency would continue, including real-time responses to cases of human violence.

    She said that NAPTIP key officers would continue working online during the closure

  • Sexual violence: NAPTIP vows to publish names, photos of rapists

    The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons has urged Nigerians to report cases of rape within their vicinity to the agency or the nearest police station.

    It said the names and photos of sex offenders in the country would soon be published.

    NAPTIP Director-General, Julie Okah-Donli, made this known on Thursday in Abuja following the rising cases of rape in the country.

    According to her, reporting cases of rape is the only way to curtail the abominable act, adding that the agency will act on reported cases.

    She said, “Rapists are now getting away with their illicit acts along with murder; these cases of domestic servitude are cases that take place behind closed doors.

    “Our job in NAPTIP is to protect Nigerian men and women, we are not going to compromise our work if they report such cases and we will ensure justice is done

  • NAPTIP arrests pastor, two others for rape

    The Benin Zonal Command of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) says it has arrested a pastor and two others for allegedly raping and impregnating a 12-year-old orphan.
    Mr Nduka Nwanwenne, NAPTIP’s Zonal Commander, who disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin on Monday, said the pastor was of a popular church in Uromi, Esan North-East council area.
    Nwanwenne said the pastor, 30, a herbalist, 59, and another man, 30, were arrested by operatives of the zonal command for alleged repeated sexual abuse of the 12-year-old orphan.
    He alleged that the three suspects, at different times, engaged in continuous sexual molestation, rape and defilement of the girl who is now five months pregnant. The zonal commander said that the pregnant girl had been taken into the NAPTIP’s custody, adding that the act started when the girl was eight years old.
    Nwanwenne disclosed that the pastor had invited her to his house to help wash dishes with the approval of the victim’s mother who was alive at the time and a member of the church.
    He noted that the pastor took advantage of his wife’s absence to rape the victim. He further explained that the victim was later taken away to stay with the second suspect, a native doctor, who was a guardian to her.
    The zonal commander alleged that the guardian repeatedly raped the victim in his bedroom and added that the herbalist blamed his act on frustration and drunkenness. According to him, the victim was later rescued by her aunt who enrolled her in a school.
    “The third suspect, a farmer who usually perform odd jobs in a restaurant owned by the victim’s uncle, molested and raped her. “One similarity among the three suspects is that they all admitted to the crime.
    However, the victim claimed that it was the last suspect that impregnated her.
    “All the suspects are in NAPTIP’s custody while an investigation was being concluded for their arraignment,” he said. (NAN)

  • Prostitution: 20,000 Edo, Delta girls currently in Mali – NAPTIP

    Prostitution: 20,000 Edo, Delta girls currently in Mali – NAPTIP

    National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) says about 20,000 trafficked girls from Edo and Delta are currently in Mali for prostitution.

    Mr Nduka Nwanwenne, the Benin Zonal Commander, NAPTIP, disclosed this on Thursday at Okpekpe, Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo, during the “I’m not for Sale” campaign in the area.

    Nwanwenne said that though human trafficking was a global issue, recent statistics revealed that it was more prevalent in Edo and Delta.

    The zonal commander in charge of Edo and Delta, also said though there were other reasons for human trafficking, prostitution was the most common.

    He said that since 2004 when NAPTIP was established in the state, about 50 ladies of Etsako extraction had been returned to Nigeria from other countries .

    Nwanwenne further disclosed that organ harvesting was the latest angle to human trafficking.

    He said that in view of this, there was need for protection of the children and youths.

    The zonal commander who also said human trafficking occurred internationally and locally, revealed that in the next few weeks, the agency would raid suspected hotels in the state where the act took place.

    He said the agency had beamed its searchlight on hotels in the zone for some time now and had a list of suspected ones.

    Meanwhile, Mrs Blessing Eshilama, the Ughwuede of Okpekpe and NAPTIP’s partner on the sensitisation programme, said that trafficking in women was a new form of slavery.

    Eshilama also said that extant literature had shown that human trafficking in the country thrived as a result of deep-rooted system failure.

    She stressed that there was urgent need to prevent human trafficking and sexual exploitation of youths and children, especially girls.

    “The life of every Okpekpe son and daughter matters; no Okpekpe indigene should fall for the tricks these human traffickers employ,” she said.

  • NAPTIP arrests 20 for suspected human trafficking

    The Federal High Court sitting in Jos on Friday further adjourned the alleged N6 billion fraud case labelled against former Gombe State Governor, Senator Danjuma Goje by the Attorney General of the Federation.

    NAN reports that the EFCC has been prosecuting the case for almost eight years until on June 7, when it handed over the case file to the AGF.

    NAN reports that the anti-graft Agency filed 21 count charge of alleged N25 billion against Goje but later narrowed it to N6 billion.

    Again 19 of the 21 charges were later struck out leaving only two counts in Goje’s “submission of No Case”

    The case, which is before Justice Babatunde Quadiri of Jos Federal High Court II, has even gone to the Jos Court of Appeal as Goje appealed against the decision of the lower court with no date fixed for the matter before EFCC hands off.

    When the case came up for hearing on Friday before Justice Quadiri, Mr Pius Akutah, an Assistant Chief State Counsel, in the office of AGF, applied for a short adjournment to enable them to study the case file.

    “My Lord, l wish to confirm to this honourable Court that the EFCC has formally forwarded the case file to us, having taken over the matter from them on June 7.

    “We are aware that on that day, June 7, the case was adjourned for further hearing, but because we are still studying the case file to have a full grasp of the entire matter, we shall be asking for a short adjournment, “ Akutah pleaded.

    Responding, Mr Aladele Oyelami, Counsel to Goje, did not object to the application for adjournment.

    “My Lord, on our part we are not objecting to the application made the prosecution counsel,” Oyelami said.

    Justice Quadiri, however, adjourned the case to July 4, for further hearing.

  • MFM pastor blames devil after raping, impregnating teenager [Photo]

    MFM pastor blames devil after raping, impregnating teenager [Photo]

    Operatives of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons has released the photograph of a pastor of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, Gwarinpa branch, David Onyekachuku, who allegedly raping and impregnating a 16-year-old girl.

    Recall TheNewsGuru had earlier published a report that Onyekachuku, 48, who hails from Nsukka in Enugu State, had met the victim, a Junior Secondary School 2 pupil in the Karmo area of ABujasometime in 2018 and started making love advances to her.

    According to NAPTIP in a statement on Sunday, the pastor, after his arrest and during interrogation, confessed to have sexually abused the girl two times and blamed the act on the “work of the devil.”

    It was gathered that when Onyekachuku met the victim for the first time, he volunteered to provide shelter and also to deliver her from witchcraft.

    The victim had lost her parents in 2018 and was said to be in dire need of accommodation.

    The anti-trafficking agency said investigation revealed that the pastor lost his wife at an undisclosed period and later brought the victim to stay with him and his daughter in Karmo.

    He allegedly volunteered to assist the victim with her education. The victim noted that it was in her first year with the pastor that he started making love advances to her, an action she resisted.

    NAPTIP said the pastor first raped the victim in March 2019 during her birthday and allegedly continued to rape her thereafter, resulting in the pregnancy.

    The anti-trafficking agency said in the statement by the Head of Press and Public Relations, Mrs Stella Nezan, that the case would be “diligently prosecuted to secure justice for the victim.”

    Nezan said, “During interrogation, the pastor with the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, confessed to have sexually abused the girl twice and attributed the evil act to the work of the devil.

    “He stated that he took the girl in to conduct deliverance on her and also enrolled her in school, having dropped out for about two years. After the deliverance, he took her to live with him and his daughter.”

    The NAPTIP Director General, Julie Okah-Donli, said, “Rather than doing what is biblically expected of him in line with his calling, he abused his position and preyed on the very victim he was supposed to protect.

    “Arising from the increased cases of rape and sexual abuse of female children and even males across the country, I have directed massive sensitisation across the country in order to arrest the situation.”