‘ Almajiri system, insurgency, bane of anti- human trafficking efforts’
• Justice commissioners chart path to end scourge
YOBE State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Saleh Samaja, has said human traffickers are taking advantage of the Almajiri system and the insurgency in the North East to traffic children across the region’s porous borders . He stated this at a gathering of Commissioners for Justice and other stakeholders in the ongoing 26th National Stakeholders’ Consultation Forum on Human Trafficking in Nigeria.
The two- day event was organised by National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons ( NAPTIP), in partnership with the governments of The Netherlands and Switzerland, yesterday, in Abuja.
He said: “Yobe happens to be one of the vulnerable states and we have a lot of challenges because of this our Almajiri system, which is seriously being abused and exploited by traffickers and a lot of unwholesome incidents as far as the welfare and protection of victims is concerned.
“They exploit them for domestic servitude; that is most unfortunate because that is not the purpose the Almajiri system is set up, but for religious education. We are being reached by insurgency and this creates another challenge too.”
Samaja pointed out that Yobe shares borders with other countries such as Niger Republic; hence, has become a transit state for traffickers taking advantage of the porous borders for Trafficking in Persons ( TIP) and children, especially those under the Almajiri system. According to him, the state trafficking task force is working to build awareness and partnership with stakeholders, including parents . He stated: “About four of our local councils, namely, Machina, Geidam, Yusufari and Yunusari, are bordering the Niger Republic and that makes Yobe one of the vulnerable states.
“There is a high tendency of trafficking people from Nigeria to Niger and even to some
North African and Middle East countries. Yobe is used by traffickers as a launching pad for even trafficking people to Europe through Niger, the Libyan border, Morocco and eventually to Europe.” His comments came just a day after the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi ( SAN), observed that Nigeria’s porous borders, lack of education and poverty remained key drivers of TIP in Nigeria.
Edo State Commissioner for Justice, Oluwale Osaze, said “empirical data revealed challenges, while cases of TIP have reduced drastically, but so much more can be done and that is why we are still addressing some of the roots.”
AGGRIEVED All Progressives Congress ( APC) members of Plateau House of Assembly have cried out to President Bola Tinubu to prevail on the Speaker, Gabriel Dewan, to allow them to take their seats. Led by Maiyakibala, the 16 aggrieved lawmakers, who briefed reporters after a closed- door parley with the Abdullahi Ganduje- led National Working Committee ( NWC) at the national secretariat of APC party in Abuja, described the refusal by Dewan to inaugurate them as an affront on the 1999 Constitution. They stated: “The wanton and unchecked immolation of democracy on the Plateau portends a dangerous precedent for this civilised form of governance. There is nowhere in our jurisprudence that the rule of might is allowed to replace the rule of law.
“We cannot be subjected to the whims and caprices of individuals or groups under whatever guise. We cannot sit by and watch the continued desecration of our grundnorm ( 1999 Constitution) or even the effrontery to disobey the orders of the court with impunity and at the same time claim to be democrats. ”
They called on Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau, President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas; Attorney- General of the Federation ( AGF) and Inspector- General of Police ( IGP) to direct “the insidious and recalcitrant” Speaker of Plateau Assembly, reportedly on recess for about five months, to inaugurate them without further delay to avert any breakdown of law and order.