Trafficking: Enugu Govt Begins Clamping Down on Illegal Orphanages, Brothels

 

The Enugu State Government has begun clamping down on unapproved orphanages and brothels used as conduits for human trafficking in the state.

The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Enugu State, Kingsley Udeh, disclosed this on Monday during an advocacy meeting with the Enugu Zonal Commander of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Sam Offiah.

Mr Udeh vowed to prosecute owners of such facilities and human traffickers in the state in line with the mission of the Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, to make Enugu the preferred destination for investment, business, tourism and living.

The commissioner added that the state will work with security and law enforcement agencies to stamp out human trafficking in the state and urged NAPTIP to strengthen the State Task Force against human trafficking “to decisively” tackle the menace in the state.

During the meeting, Messrs Udeh and Offiah resolved to work with other agencies to jointly draw up an action plan to optimise the performance of the task force and improve outcomes, including deterring potential human traffickers as well as supporting victims of human trafficking.

The attorney-general said the administration of Governor Mbah would not tolerate trading in human persons or human organs in any form and warned that anyone caught in the act would be punished according to the law.

He expressed readiness to issue a general fiat to NAPTIP, which the anti-trafficking agency earlier requested, to enable it to prosecute human traffickers under the state’s law.

Responding, Mr Offiah, the NAPTIP’s zonal commander, told the attorney-general that the agency has a shelter, where victims taken from abusive homes and brothels are kept until they are integrated back into society.

The zonal commander explained that sheltering victims of human trafficking was part of the agency’s mandate.

He, however, appealed to the justice commissioner to assist the agency in securing decent accommodation because they are currently staying in a rented apartment that is insufficient and not conducive for its operations.

Other challenges affecting their operation in the state, according to him, include a lack of logistics, like vehicles, as well as operational resources for running the agency.

Background

Orphanages, sometimes used as “baby factories,’” have been linked to the increasing cases of child trafficking in South-east Nigeria.

The term, baby factory, is a name given to a facility where traffickers hold women, mostly teenagers, against their will, rape and force them to get pregnant.

The newborns at the facility are then sold illegally to adoptive parents.

Girls in such a facility are sometimes forced into child labour and prostitution.

A recent investigation uncovered how a supposed Christian orphanage in Anambra State, another state in the southeast, was illegally selling babies between N1.5 million and N2 million, depending on a baby’s gender.

The investigation also revealed how the sales were executed with the collusion of the officials of the Nigerian police and the judiciary.

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