NIGERIA: REPORT ON TIP DEMARCHE

UNCLAS ABUJA 001839 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREF KCRM SMIG NI KREF SUBJECT: NIGERIA: REPORT ON TIP DEMARCHE REF: STATE 197722 ¶1. (U) The Ambassador delivered reftel demarche to Minister of Justice Akin Olujimi on November 1 at the Minister's office. Also present were Dr. C. J. Amasike, Special Assistant to the Minister, Carol Ndaguba, Executive Secretary of the National Agency for the Prohibition of SIPDIS Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP),and Shadrach Haruna, Head of Prosecution, NAPTIP. CongenOff served as notetaker. ¶2. (SBU) The Minister said Nigeria would have a good story to tell regarding progress in combating trafficking in persons for the interim assessment. He noted that a major trafficking conviction is expected November 18 in Benin State. He expressed gratitude for the longer-term strategy to improve Nigeria's ranking. ¶3. (SBU) In a subsequent one-on-one meeting, the Minister thanked the Ambassador for the specificity of both the questions for the interim assessment and the recommended actions of the longer-term strategy. He said, "We thought we were doing so much, and we could not figure out what we still needed to do." The minister was fascinated by the list of Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 countries from the State Department website. He said Nigeria could certainly reach Tier 2 for the 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report. He added that his goal was for Nigeria to be a Tier 1 country by the time the Ambassador left Post. CAMPBELL