Causes And Consequences Of Child Trafficking As Expressed By Married, Adults
[A CASE STUDY OF SHAKI WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE.]

Trafficking of young girls for prostitution out of Nigeria has never been restricted to one geographical or ethnic area, but it is more province within a particular ethnic group that is Edo girls. For instance, Nigeria Ambassador to Italy wrote a letter to the Edo State House of Assembly to do something to stop their young girls from trooping out of the country to Italy for prostitution, which shows that if necessary actions are not taken by the Edo State government and the Federal government to stop the act of child trafficking and women trafficking this will continue to bring more embarrassment to the state and the country at large, and many people will contract sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDs, since the prostitutes harbour all these venereal diseases. It therefore means that, unless the governments act fast to stop trafficking of young adults for prostitution, labouring, or any other means and look into the root, the number will continue to increase (Akinpelu and Yusuf, 2004).
    Trafficking in persons, particularly women and teenagers for the purpose of sexual exploitation and forced labour, has become a phenomenon of global dimension. In Europe alone, it is estimated that around 500,000 young girls per year are trafficked from poorer regions in the world. Sexual factors account for the desire of children to look for in other countries. Among these are children unequal rights and access to formal labour, children’s restricted abilities to gain power over their own lives in their home countries for want of a better phase which can be called increasing feminization of poverty (WOTCLEF, 2000).
    For those involved, trafficking, especially in children, has become a very profitable activity. The United Nations estimates that they make more than seven billion dollars annually from trafficking in human beings. Trafficking in human beings particularly children is now variously conceived and approached as: a moral, criminal, migration human rights, also becoming, obvious that since trafficking is an international phenomenon, international cooperation in combating it is also imperative (WOTCLEF, 2000). Trafficked children are commodities they are bought, sold and transported according to supply and demand. The victims can be as young as 5 years old. In October, 1999, the 110 international programme on the Elimination of Child labour (IPEC) with the financial support of the United States Department of Labour (USDL) launched a major sub-regional programme to combat child trafficking for labour exploitation in west name’s latest report. “When she (the intermediary) came, she gave me 25,000 (us dollars) to take care of any children. She promised to find my son a job and said that I would receive some money every month. Thanked God, because I thought that I had at last found a way to take care of seven children. I had no idea what she really had in mind for my child”. This lament by a Togolese mother reflects perhaps the most typical form of child trafficking in west and Central Africa. But the cause is by no means exceptional. Nigeria reports that in 1996, some 4,000 children were trafficked children between 1995 and 1999? (NAPTIP, 2003).
    In Sokoto State, Nigeria, kidnapped children were sold for amount ranging form 50,000 to 100,000 naira or America dollars 500 to 1,000, to be used as labourers or as ritual sex objects. In addition, it is clearly understandable that, Nigeria is now a “victim” of child trafficking and other forms of trafficking, mostly for force labour, but also for sexual exploitations servitude and slavery. Some recent developments are also providing indications that trafficking might be carried on for ritual purposes and for the purpose of organ transplant (WOTCLEF, 2000).
    A paper presented at a two day workshop for law enforcement officers 27th – 28th of February, 2006 at Ilorin Kwara State by U.S. Haruna, LLB (Hons), BL, LLM, Stated: This time around, not through the brutal raids of the early medieval slave dealers, but through a subtle means of deceit and enticement and sometimes, through the abuse of the position of authority. This practice came to public awareness in Nigeria in the early 2000 through the instrumentality of some SGOs particularly women Trafficking and Child Eradications Foundation (WOTCLEF) who pioneered the campaign against trafficking in persons. Subsequently Nigeria signed and ratified the trafficking protocol supplementing the Transnational organized crime convention otherwise known as paemo convention in 2000.
    It is interesting to note however, that our existing penal legislations variously provide against these practices and allied of fences such as kidnapping, slavery, adduction etc that the United Nations Protocol seeks to address. The provisions are not wholistic in addressing the multidimensional nature of trafficking persons. Coupled with this, the laws were lamely enforced and prosecuted either because the victims were persuaded by personal reasons not report or that the traffickers employed sophisticated method to beat the law.
    Trafficking in persons (prohibition) Law Enforcement Administration Act 2003 and the subsequent establishment of a national agency is the national response to the growing wave of human right abuses associated with the modern day slavery. The law is the domestication of the trafficking protocol. The law which was promulgated in July, 2003 seeks to deal with the obnoxious business of trade in human beings. It is a comprehensive piece of legislation aimed at fighting trafficking in persons and other allied offences (both internal and external trafficking) in its entire ramification. It did not only create offences with stiff penalties but also established an administrative structure and an entity known as National Agency for prohibition of Trafficking in person and other related matters (NPTIP) to administer and enforce the law. The agency is heated by an executive secretary and has four specialized units, namely, investigation, legal, public enlightenment, and the counselling and rehabilitation.