How Opkeboholo’s strategies made human trafficking, irregular migration unattractive in Edo –EDMA DG Agazuma

 Edo State Migration Agency (EDMA) Director General (EDMA)Honorable Chief Lucky  Agazuma, tells how the state governor, Monday Okpebholo’s initiatives helped to drastically reduce the menace of human trafficking and irregular migration in the state. Excerpts:

What is the state of irregular migration and human trafficking in Edo State now?

Of course, it’s declining geometrically because of the several approaches the state government is bringing in. I’m the pioneer director general of the migration agency and Edo State  government is the first to have this migration agency in Nigeria. We are still the only state having it. When we started, the governor of the Edo State, Senator Monday Okpebholo, brought his strategies for us to run the agency and we followed up.

What follows? People started giving us awards as the rate at which the irregular migration was going on before started going down just like the law of diminishing return. It has reduced drastically.

What was the situation before you came on board?

It was endemic, not just in the area of international trafficking, but also within the metropolis. People coming in from other states to commit all atrocities of human trafficking. But when we emerged, the first thing we did was to carry out  strategic feasibility studies. We carried out raids on the streets and discovered that in every 200 girls standing on the street, for example, who were trafficked to Edo, one percent, or less than, was from Edo State.

So, we were able to find out that other states were actually using here as a hub to actualize their aim.People were trafficking people. Most of them said that they never knew it was a crime. When we came in, we invested massively in advocacy. Then we created several models. One of the models we used in addressing irregular migration was the SQ model where, if you see a crime relating to human trafficking, see it, say it and it is  sorted. Of course, that has been helping so well.

When you say you invested in advocacy, could you just explain a little bit?

 Yes, with the aid of AI, we use this AI to teach people that it is dangerous to be trafficked in irregular way. Then during the yuletide,Christmas period, we equally let them know that some diasporans are the traffickers. They come to town to spend the money they gathered in one year in one week.

In other words, they will be spending the money they don’t have to buy what they don’t want and to impress those they don’t like. So, we did an enlightenment program. We created migration clubs around the schools and worked with the NGOs. Then we made an advocacy to the brotheliers, who specialize in bringing in underage girls- 13 years  to 14 years  from other states to end up in the brothels.

As a matter of fact, most of these persons  are in prison. A  native doctor that was giving them oath to swear is cooling off in prison. The same with a pastor’s wife. These are part of what we have done to fight irregular migration. And of course, the method we are using is working for us. I can buttress that with the fact that before now, Edo state had always taken the lead in irregular migration. Now, we have dropped from that list. Kano and the rest have taken over.

Tell us about the clubs your agency established in schools. What brought about the idea, and what have you been able to achieve through that?

We know that the focus of many traffickers is  secondary school students. We started by carrying out a catch them young program, where the children have to know from the beginning that it is wrong to be trafficked. That if they speak to them about the irregular migration and  human trafficking, they should learn to speak out.

We have had several issues where minors, including a 12-year-old girl who was a sickler, and the sister were trafficked to Libya.  On the way to Libya, the migration agency was able to run to Zaria and intercepted  them in  Kaduna and subsequently returned them to Edo.  So, that helps through the clubs we set up in school because we reach out to students. If they see that their colleagues are not in school and nowhere to be found, they should reach out to us as part of the rules and regulations of the club.

With that, we  are now able to know what is going on. Then also through the advocacy, we equally made an advocacy from here to all the African countries. For migrants who are stranded in the Mediterranean Sea and other sub-Saharan regions, what we did was to set up a whatsapp group group. We have coordinators around the African countries.  

When they see a case like this, they report to us. For example, there was a case of one boy from Edo north who was trafficked from here to an African country. He died along the line because he was trying to use the trunk of a car to cross. He got hit and he died inside the truck. Instead of his friends coming back home and inform the family, they started lying that the guy was in prison. They were  using that as a method to siphon the families until we brought that  to the attention of the family.  They told us  they were still gathering money to  send  to these friends to release him from the prison.We were able to do it because of the advocacy we have  been  carrying out.

Tell us about how you have been bringing people back from different parts of Africa  and other parts of the world.

 When it comes to bringing people back, that has been the governor’s mandate.During the electioneering  campaign, I campaigned with the governor. What he promised he would do is what he’s doing now today as part of his practical governance. Whenever he hears that Edo people are  stranded, he will send  us to go and rescue them.

We have a good relationship with almost all the Nigerian embassies in these African countries. So when they have issues that require emergency attention, they reach out to us and immediately, the governor mobilizes us for a rescue mission.

We’ve gone to so many and we still intend to go for more this year.

What is the  fate of those who have been assisted to return?  Have you been giving them any form of empowerment?

So many.  That falls under our RQ method. We readmit them back  when their family rejects them.We rehabilitate them when their family is irritated. Then we reintegrate them when their family’s are ungrateful for their return.

We have a school for those who want to go back to school.  The catering, tailoring, barbing centres among others are there. Any category that you want to do, we help you.  We train you after that, we set you up.

Many government organizations always have financial challenges to do their work. Do you face a similar challenge?

You were in the meeting a while ago  where some persons  from other states were complaining.  To be honest, the government of Edo State is trying.

If you look at it by next week, Lagos and Kano state governments will be coming to Edo to learn from us.  If we were lacking funds, I don’t believe we would be able to take the lead in migration in Nigeria and When it comes to the area of irregular migration.  Kano  is now taking the lead. If there was no money,  there’s no way we would have been able to execute all we have done. Of course, the government of Edo State is giving us access to funding to enable us to carry out strategy work because the main problem of Edo before now had always been the issue of irregular migration and human trafficking. it’s dropping drastically now  because the government of Edo State is investing massively in the migration sector, providing all the necessary apparatus to enable us to carry out our work strategically.

There are some hot spots in Edo State, in Benin in particular. Do you raid those areas?

Of course, we know the hot spots.For example, like the Ihama in Benin, that is the headquarters. We have a Agip, sub headquarters. We have Uromi in Esanland among others. I don’t think I  need to talk much about that. You just go and ask them because we believe in practical governance.  We don’t fight irregular migration on power points. We fight it in the fields.We raid those spots and  rescue the victims.

Combating irregular migration is not an easy thing as human traffickers are hard to deal with. What  challenges do you get from them?

Traffickers right now are using technologies.

For example, there is one platform (QNET)  they used in  trafficking 24 persons to Edo State  from other countries.  Under the S-Cube model that we developed in the state,that when they hear a crime relating to human trafficking, they should say it, some  good persons reached out to us and we were able to  rescue them. I think we are doing so well in Edo State when it comes to managing migration and migration governance.

You have so many transport companies that also aid irregular migration. What do you do about them?

When Governor Okpebholo  appointed me as the director general of the migration agency, my team and I embarked on a trip to Ghana  to understudy their migration trend. We went straight to the office of the Inspector General of Police  in Ghana. We discussed extensively  and he told us a few areas we can improve on. We  first of all asked them how are these persons coming here, and they told us through transport. So, for the transport sector in Edo State, we are placing strategic surveillance in all the transport companies running in the regional countries. The Ghanaian authorities  equally told us most persons specialize in boycotting the checkpoints on the route to Ghana by going to Yaba using their boat or ship. So we were able to weigh in in that area and carried out advocacy to transport companies in edo warning that if they are involved in such, in line with our law, we have the power to confiscate their property, sell the properties, pay the proceeds into our trust fund and  use the proceeds to rehabilitate and reintegrate the trafficked  victims. And of course, they have been working with us closely.

Have you made any arrests since you came on board? And if you have made any arrests, what is the prosecution like?

So many are chilling in the prison. For example, I started with a native doctor who specialized in body part  harvesting- I mean the exoskeleton; the hoof, nails,  pubic hair etc. When they traffic children,  or maybe they want to use children for sextortion,  he specialized in making it making them  take  oath not to speak up.  So when we had one that finally spoke up to us,  we quickly leveraged that to arrest the native doctor. As I speak to you now, he’s chilling in Oko prison.

We equally had a case of a pastor’s wife, whose member went to complain that the  husband wasn’t doing so well.  Instead of the pastor’s wife to advise the woman or find a way to support, the pastor’s wife  supported in trafficking the member’s wife to Libya

As I speak to you, that pastor’s wife is also chilling in  Oko Prison. There is a case of one who trafficked a 14-year-old girl  from Edo State to Burkina Faso.

We rescued that person back,  and the trafficker is chilling in the prison now.

 I had over 35 cases last year and most of them are in prison and the rest are still under investigation. A few are on the run but they can only run, they cannot hide forever.

What’s your message to human traffickers  who have failed  to yield to your warnings and still flouting the rules?

 My message to those persons in Edo  who are taking us for granted  is that we have a very strong law and that law permits us to sell your house.

When you lose your house, you know what that  means. So, if you are trafficking anybody out of Edo State, we have the power to confiscate your property, send you out of your house,  seal the house,  sell the house,  pay the proceeds into our trust fund, use the proceeds to rehabilitate and reintegrate  the returning  migrants back to the society. And also know that,  myself speaking, I’m a Nigerian in diaspora.

 The  diasporans and those living in neighbouring countries, can come in here through the traffickers  to spend the money they gathered in one year in two weeks. In other words, they will be spending the money they don’t have to buy what they don’t want and to impress those they don’t like.  Only for them to go back to their country and start afresh.

 So, we must learn to be very careful to avoid being trafficked. The brotheliers also need to learn that we  have the right to seal  their brothels and sell them  if they are involved with minors  in their brothels.  They should also know that trafficking minors, when it gets to the court of law,  it would now be a case between you and the government.