COVID-19, economic crisis to increase cases of human trafficking - UNODC

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, (UNODC) has disclosed that more Nigerians are likely to become victims of human trafficking as a result of economic downturn which has been worsened by impact of COVID-19.

According to reports by UNODC, Nigeria is the source, transit and destination country for human trafficking and the root causes of trafficking include poverty, lack of education, globalisation, corruption and gender inequality.

This was disclosed by Jessica Ebrard, representative from UNODC during a workshop in Calabar for journalists on trafficking in persons in Nigeria organised by UNODC in partnership with National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, (NAPTIP).

Ebrard said that COVID-19 has had drastic economic effect which has led to loss of jobs, making more people venerable to be trafficked out of Nigeria.

She explained that traffickers disguise themselves as helpers to victims, whom they promise job opportunities and greener pastures outside the country, only to traffick them for purposes of drug trade, servitudes, prostitution and organ harvesting amongst others.

She noted that globalisation allows trafficking to set up complex routes and systems within and across borders.

Ebrard said the presence of these complex channels creates a challenge because prosecuting one trafficker may only minimally disrupt the network of traffickers.

She stated further that in line with its international commitments, Nigeria enacted the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration (TIPPEA) Act of 2015, which described the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP)’S functions and other provisions supporting its mandate.

She noted that despite considerable efforts in recent years to prevent human trafficking, trafficking in persons ( TIP) in and from Nigeria remain topics of concern for the country, but also for the broader international community, including transit and destination countries for Nigerians travelling irregularly.

Charline Oftadeh, also representative from UNODC stated that most victims trafficked out of Sub-saharan Africa are trafficked for forced labour, sexual exploitation and other forms of exploitations.

According to reports put together by Oftadeh, West African countries continue to report the highest share of women convicted of trafficking in Sub-saharan Africa.

History is about to be made in the nation’s flagship anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), as Abdulrasheed Bawa, a vibrant, articulate, well-bred youth, has been nominated by the Federal Government to step into the shoes vacated on July 7, 2020 by the erstwhile helmsman, Assistant Inspector-general of Police Ibrahim Magu.

Magu was suspended and made to face the Justice Ayo Salami probe panel after he was accused of corruption and insubordination by the Attorney-general and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami. The panel’s report is yet to be made public.

On Tuesday, February 16, 2021, Femi Adeshina, the presidential spokesperson, announced that President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the Senate to confirm Bawa as the substantive chairman of the commission.

With about 17 years’ working experience with the EFCC as a detective, Bawa who joined the agency in 2004 has vast investigation experience and has been part of prosecution of advance fee fraud, official corruption, bank fraud, money laundering and other economic and financial crimes-related offences.

If confirmed by the Senate, 40-year-old Bawa would be the youngest on record and the first non-police officer to assume the headship of the agency. His predecessors were all senior police officers. The pioneer chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, assumed office at the age 43 in 2003 and left in 2007. He was succeeded by Farida Waziri, who assumed office in May 2008 at the age of 59 and left on November 23, 2011. The last substantive chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, stepped into office on November 23, 2011, at age 49, and left on November 9, 2015.

Magu, the immediate-past acting chairman, who spent five years in office without Senate confirmation, assumed office at the age of 53 on November 9, 2015.

Bawa, a native of Jega Local Government Area of Kebbi State, is a trained EFCC investigator with vast experience. He has undergone several specialised trainings in different parts of the world.

His appointment is expected to bring about sweeping reforms in the anti-graft agency which has for years received bashings from people who accused some of the officers of compromising corruption and shielding offenders from prosecution. And based on his age and rank as deputy chief detective superintendent, several EFCC officers senior to him in rank, including the current Acting Chairman Mohammed Umar Abba, would likely be eased out of office as they would not be expected to salute a junior officer.

Abdulrasheed Bawa is a certified fraud examiner (CFE), certified anti-money laundering specialist (CAMS), and was also trained by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), United States Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FINCEN), the World Bank, the United Nations Office of Drug and Crimes, the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigeria State Security Services, the EFCC Academy and United Kingdom’s Global Training Consulting.

Bawa was part of the pioneer EFCC Cadet Officers course one, 2005 and upon graduation was made an assistant detective superintendent (ADS). He progressed to the rank of deputy detective superintendent (DDS) in 2007, senior detective superintendent (SDS) in 2010, and principal detective superintendent (PDS) in 2013. His last promotion was to the rank of deputy chief detective superintendent (DCDS) in 2016.

A 2012 graduate of Economics (Second Class Honours) from Usman Danfodio University Sokoto, he obtained a Masters in International Affairs and Diplomacy from same institution. He is currently studying for a Bachelor of Law (LLB) degree at the University of London.

The incoming EFCC chairman has attended several conferences and seminars across the globe which include ACAMS Global 24+ Virtual Conference (2020), ACFE Global Fraud Conference, Las Vegas, USA (June 2018), Global Forum on Assets Recovery (Gfar), Washington DC, USA (December 2017), UNCAC Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Assets Recovery, Vienna, Austria (August 2017), among others.

He is credited with successfully investigating and testifying in the prosecution of several cases, leading to convictions and recovery of billions of naira and millions of dollars in cash and properties across the world.

He currently supervises the biggest operations zonal office of the EFCC in Lagos, having 604 officers and securing 227 convictions. He had earlier supervised the investigation of all cases in the Port Harcourt zonal office in which an unprecedented 215 convictions were secured in 11 months and final forfeiture of hundreds of properties to the Federal Government.

Before then, he had headed the Capacity Development Division, EFCC Academy, Abuja from December 2019 to August 2020, the commission’s Ibadan Zonal Office covering Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo and Kwara States from June 2018 to January 2019, and the CounterTerrorism and General Investigation/pension Unit of the Lagos Zonal Office from March 2017 to May 2018.

Its day five after the valentine day flurry where most people the world over were working overtime to meet self- imposed deadlines to prove to another how much they love them. I know people who spent money and time trying to prove this love, this love, not shown the whole of last year from the last valentine day. I know people who drove their loved ones to distraction by insisting that he/she begs borrows or steal to deliver a box of chocolates and a couple of sad flowers otherwise the love is off.

I have just been wondering if Valentine is the only day you show love and after that until next February. I have also been wondering if valentine day gifts and lunch are the only things that indicate love for another. I have seen men, women scammed by faux lovers who borrow money to do the valentine things, put one in the family way (if it’s a man) break a heart (if it’s a woman) and run. In the end you offered your body for a valentine plate of chicken and chips and gave your heart for a smile and a nicely wrapped box of boxers. The amount of hearts shattered postvalentine is best imagined. After this, there are those who would vow never to love again.

Then there is the category of those who ogle after valentine lovers, who do not have anyone send them gifts and who have no one to send gifts. I always worry about them because the season throws up so much fakeness, so much false love, so much advantage taking and so much gift gifting that it unnerves those without a valentine. I have been without a valentine now for the longest and I am okay. This is because the real meaning of Valentine is really about a Priest, St Valentine who was marrying off couples secretly in an iron regime, which had stopped marriage. His legacy was that he allowed love to thrive when it was being stultified by a dictator. St Valentine of Rome was beheaded on the 14th of February for propagating love. But what do businessmen and women do? They turn it to a commercial enterprise and turn it into a multibillion-dollar business. Merchandises, franchises, gifting, wrapping, cakes and pastries, media platforms and restaurants are booming on the 14th of February, year after year.

But I would like to offer a different perspective on Valentine.have you enabled peace in your office and ensured that everyone is happy? Do you treat your partner right? You are my valentine. Have you been responsible for breaking up a marriage and causing kata- kata in another person’s marriage? You certainly cannot be my valentine. Children in that broken marriage ultimately suffer emotional trauma. What did you succeed in doing? I don’t care how many valentines you have. You are definitely not my person. Are you a sister in law who is ready to break a marriage so you can now marry your brother abi after you have driven his wife? Or are you a brother in law who wants to see his brother’s marriage broken? How are you Valentine compliant? Ditto mothers in law and fathers in law. Allow the young couple to grow. Are you the office witch making everyone unhappy and sharing wickedness or are you the office Angel who always has something nice to say? Make your choice of how you want to celebrate after the valentine blues of the 14th of February. Are you able to visit a motherless baby’s home, pay the fees of an indigent person, and make someone smile, walk someone through their grief, show kindness to the broken hearted, give of your time and listen to a depressed person or share a burden? These are my people in the true valentine club. Not the ones who are scamming women and scamming men and believe they are sharp. That’s not valentine, that’s fraud.

So let us return to my not having a valentine for years and years. Of course I love perfumes and a nice gift, I love shoes and a great cake and oodles of jewelry but I do not want gifts restricted to that day. I want to be treated right every day and taken out every week. I want to have my bespoke perfume gifted every other month and flowers from time to time. I want to be swept off my feet always. Not just on Valentine’s Day.

‘ Are you the office witch making everyone unhappy and sharing wickedness or are you the office Angel who always has something nice to say?