Fred Ezeh, Abuja
National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), has slammed the United States government over a report that gave little or no recognition to efforts by the Nigerian government to fight trafficking in persons and other related offences.
NAPTIP said some individuals concocted the report to ridicule the Nigerian government and efforts of NAPTIP to rid Nigeria of activities of human traffickers.
Its Director General, Julie Okah–Donli, in a statement released in Abuja, on Friday, said the report released on Thursday, by the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, indicated that Nigeria has been upgraded to Tier 2 from Tier 3 Watch List which the country had occupied for two years, as regards the fight against human trafficking.
She disagreed with the report, confirming that Nigeria has doubled its rate of prosecutions and convictions in the last one year, including the investigation and prosecution of government officials, NAPTIP officials suspected to be involved in human trafficking offences.
She was unhappy that US government turned around to hold Nigerian government culpable for not meeting the conviction of any of these officials.
She said: “This is curious because the US government is aware that Nigeria practices principle of separation of power between the executive and the judiciary. Once a case is in court, government cannot force a conclusion in one way or the other, otherwise it will amount to interference in the judicial processes.
“While we agreed on one hand that Nigerian military does not employ child soldiers, the report quoted an unnamed Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that alleged that 10 male soldiers in Giwa Barracks, including five health workers forced at least 15 females detainees into sex, in exchange for food, soap, basic necessities and promise for freedom.
“Indeed, the report is replete with unfounded and unsubstantiated allegations by the local and international NGOs that alleged all kinds of misdemeanors activities in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.
“One would have expected that, if the US government was really interested in reporting truth, these allegations should have been cross-checked with the relevant Nigerian government agencies instead of relying on NGOs to indict a country.”
She noted that weighing the efforts of Nigeria particularly NAPTIP against other countries who have been highly rated by the report, Nigeria ought to be in Tier 1 and not in Tier 2, as recommended by the report. She urged the US government to radically review its method and criteria for assessment of countries’ efforts to fight human trafficking, otherwise the periodic report will continue to slide into irrelevance.