AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT OF VICTIMS
OF CRIMES IN NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
It is not
exaggeration that despite the effort of NAPTIP and other bodies like the ILO,
there are still cases and reports of women and child trafficking in Nigeria.
There are occasions where hospitals take in young pregnant girls, offer them
money for their babies ranging from N20,000-N25,000, which they in turn sell
between N150,000-N30,000 depending on the gender of the baby. Regrettably, many
Nigerian children in particular and Africa in general are prone to the whims
and caprices of human traffickers at a very astronomical rate. Some of the
problems of trafficking in persons are; the past and present military and
political leaders lack political will of the states to deal with the current
issues despite large budgetary amount that was earmarked to deal with the issue
of all sorts of criminal activities, parents and relations of trafficked
persons are never interested in helping law enforcement officials to discourage
their children or alert the officers responsible for the prohibition of
trafficking in persons, The absence of reliable records in the offices of
NAPTIP, various ministry of justice and some police departments on crimes and
victimization has hindered the understanding of crime pattern and trend of
human trafficking, the lack of enforcement mechanisms in to search arrest and
prosecutions of the suspects of trafficking and deal with them in accordance
with provisions of the law is another problem. Some of the objectives are; to
examine the laws on trafficking, to examine the application of the law on the
offence of trafficking, also to establish findings on the application of those
laws on the offence of trafficking and to provide recommendations. The findings
are; the judiciary and administrative mechanisms for the prevention of human
trafficking is ineffective, illiteracy contribute a lot to backwardness of
combating human trafficking, Nigerian anti-trafficking law in itself does not
provide a serious punishment that is commensurate with the gravity of the
offences, it has been observed that there has been a problem of lack of
coordination between international agencies and the Nigerian domestic agencies,
i.e. NAPTIP and other law enforcement agencies that are meant for protection of
trafficking. The recommendations are; Judicial and administrative mechanisms
should be strengthened where necessary to enable victims to obtain prompt and
adequate redress through formal and informal procedures that are expeditious,
fair, inexpensive and accessible, Need to educate the public about the rights
and duties of suspects, offenders, victims and the state as stakeholders in the
criminal justice system, Need to further re-examine our criminal justice
administration with a view to addressing the problems created by our
inheritance of a colonial system which extols the theory of law and state to
the point that recognizes only the state and the offender as the “parties” to
criminal proceedings, and to the attendant neglect of the rights and welfare of
the victim.
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