THE National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons has stated that from 2004 to the now, 599 human traffickers have been convicted.
The number was provided yesterday by the agency’s Benin Zonal Commander, Nduka Nwawenne, at a consultation workshop for judges and magistrates in Edo State which was hosted by the Uromi Justice Development Peace and Caritas Initiative.
“The The operation of the Victims of Trafficking Trust Fund in Edo State” was the topic of the consultation workshop.
According to Nwawenne, Justice Constance Momoh, the state’s then-chief judge, handed down a verdict on November 19, 2004, in which the defendant was sentenced to three years in jail. This was NAPTIP’s first conviction.
In 2022, the agency recorded 80 convictions, the highest annual convictions in the nation, he continued.
He also mentioned that the agency has so far this year achieved 27 convictions.
According to Nwawenne, it is necessary to make the trafficking trust fund more operational, in order to improve the help and protection of victims of human trafficking in Edo State.
He said, “I must say that 599 persons have been convicted in the country since we got the first conviction in 2004.
“The provision of the trust funds is supposed to be an effective instrument in the rehabilitation and reintegration of victims of human trafficking. However, both in the Edo State law and in the national law, the funds have not been effective, even though at the federal level, a committee exists to attract and manage the funds.”
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Executive Director, Uromi JPDCI, Revd Father Fidelis Arhedo, said the workshop was to mobilise relevant stakeholders and galvanise actions towards the activation of victims of trafficking trust fund as contained in the Edo Traffic in Persons Prohibition law 2018.
