INTERROGATING NIGERIA’S EVOLVING LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR COMBATING INTERNATIONAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Abstract

Arising from the enormity and dynamics of international trafficking in persons from Nigeria to various countries of Africa, Europe and Asia over the years, Nigeria has reviewed and enacted thrice – 2003, 2005 and 2015 – legal instruments to tackle the menace of modern day slavery that has earned Nigeria negative international image. This paper is a critical appraisal of the various legal instruments to highlight their strengths and weaknesses. The analyses showed that the Nigerian government has now deliberately withdrawn the penalty of capital punishment for high-level convicts from its statutes against human trafficking. The subsisting law has however increased the finanacial liabilities for all levels of offenders that are convicted in Federal and State High Courts. The paper posits that unless the pervasive corruption amongst personnel of government agencies and security outfits aiding traffickers in illegal migration of victims is tackled, and a positive synergy developed between Nigeria's Immigration Service and the anti-trafficking agency, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) to address their operational conflicts and power politics in arresting, investigating and prosecuting suspects as well as NAPTIP agents empowered by law to undertake surveillance activities at the nation’s borders, Nigeria's success in reducing on-going trafficking in persons may be very minimal.