COORDINATION DIFFICULT FOR NIGERIAN ANTI-TIP

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 001955

SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/W; STATE FOR INR/AA; INL/G/TIP FOR VERONICA
ZEITLIN; AF/RSA FOR MARINDA HARPOLE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/27/2015
TAGS: PHUM PREL KCRM KWMN SMIG NI
SUBJECT: COORDINATION DIFFICULT FOR NIGERIAN ANTI-TIP
AUTHORITIES


Classified By: Consul General Brian Browne for reasons 1.4(b) and (d).


1. (U) Summary. Coordinating efforts to combat trafficking
in persons, both among government agencies and NGOs, is one
of the stiffest challenges facing the GON. State police
commands are hesitant to relinquish primary investigative
jurisdiction rights to the National Agency for the
Prohibition of Trafficking and Other Related Matters
(NAPTIP),and top-level immigration officials compete with
NAPTIP for FG and international funds earmarked for
trafficking purposes. Additionally, NGOs appear to be
expanding their mandate, often outside their areas of
expertise in order to attract funds. Special Assistant to
the President on Trafficking, Dayo Akinmoyo, requested USG
assistance in establishing a system to better coordinate GON
and civil society anti-trafficking efforts. End Summary.

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NAPTIP Builds Centralized Trafficking Database
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2. (U) With assistance from the International Labour
Organization (ILO),NAPTIP recently equipped their National
Monitoring Center with V-SAT capability to maintain a
national database of trafficking reports, making information
more quickly available to investigators and prosecutors. The
database can be updated via world-wide web by all relevant
law enforcement agencies, NGOs, and international
organizations.


3. (U) While creation of the database represents a
significant step in NAPTIP's capacity to collect and report
data and statistics, it does not mean that the interagency
cooperation necessary to ensure its continued accuracy
exists. Until mid-2005, for instance, NAPTIP maintains that
State police commands never submitted an entire trafficking
file, including case report, victim records, and suspect
information; since then, only one such file has been received
by the NAPTIP.


4. (C) The Special Assistant to the Minister of Justice
told us the Ministry still finds itself arbitrating
jurisdictional disputes between NAPTIP and state police, who
want control over crimes for which suspects are charged and
their punishment. When the Cross River State police found 40
children in a bus headed for forced labor in Cameroon
(reftel),the police did not hand over the perpetrators to
NAPTIP until the Ministry of Justice intervened. In another
notable case, the Kwara State governor did not want to hand a
trafficker over to NAPTIP because he felt the crime was minor.

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Trafficking Shelter Houses Few Victims Despite Daily Influx
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5. (U) The Lagos State Deputy Comptroller for Immigration,

M. Obot, characterized interceptions of trafficking victims
at the Mohammed Murtala International Airport and at the Seme
land border with Benin Republic as "daily occurrences."
NAPTIP's nearby Lagos shelter for trafficking victims,
however, rarely utilizes more than 10% of its 120-bed
capacity. Obot explained that victims were often kept at
State Command headquarters for up to two days and preferably
returned to their families if identites could be ascertained.
The registration book at the Lagos shelter showed most
referrals in the month of November were from Immigration or
an NGO, the Women's Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON).


6. (U) By contrast, the small 8-bed shelter at NAPTIP
headquarters Abuja is always full, and additional victims are
housed at a shelter administered by the Women Trafficking and
Child Labor Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF),a local NGO
active in finding and assisting trafficking victims. Founded
by V.P. Atiku's wife, WOTCLEF is now planning to build a
1,000-bed rehabilitation center to cope with the needs of
victims.

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Need for Better Coordination Recognized by GON and IOs
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7. (U) A representative of ILO's Program Against
Trafficking in West Africa (PATWA) mentioned to us the lack
of coordination between law enforcement agencies was the most
urgent problem facing the GON in its battle against
trafficking. Dayo Akinmoyo, the Special Assistant to the
President on Trafficking, agreed. She noted that funding for
anti-trafficking efforts had originally been a part of the
immigration service's budget, and the creation of NAPTIP
moved these resources out of immigration and caused many
squabbles.

8. (U) Akinmoyo further noted that this coordination
problem was mirrored among NGOs, which often duplicated
services or often began to work in areas of assistance where
they had no discernible expertise but where outside funding
was available. She requested assistance in creating a
network of NGOs with specific priorites, e.g., Counseling and
Rehabilitation or Law Enforcement Sensitization. Through a
division of labor, the strengths of each NGO would then be
properly utilized, she argued. Akinmoyo asked that the USG
restructure even its recent $18,000 TIP small fund grant to
address this coordination problem.

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Comment
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9. While NAPTIP is on the right track, various law
enforcement agencies need to accept and adhere more fully to
the current anti-trafficking organizational chart for the
agency to succeed fighting trafficking. This same
observation was made in the recent Chemonics report
commissioned by USAID. Future assistance should go to
programs that promote interagency cooperation and
coordination. WOTCLEF has begun to answer Akinmoyo's call
for NGOs to be similarly specialized and coordinated, but
they will also need assistance in order to be successful.
End Comment.
BROWNE