Akwa Ibom is the new poster child of state violence against its own children. It came into notoriety following the recent release of a video, showing the extreme violation of children's rights going on in the state.
The video showed that many children,some as young as two years old ,were branded as witches and abandoned by their parents and guardians.
Trafficking into neighbouring countries like Gabon and Cameroun is pretty common in the State. The coastal regions, Oron environs, serve as routes. Locals in the region readily accept that children are being trafficked by boat.
"Human trafficking in Oron is not a new thing," says a local who pleaded anonymity. "Oron has been known to be highly involved in slave trade. There was a well known slave trader called Casablanca, an Oron man, during the time of Idiagbon who used to take people to sell in Cameroun," he adds.
The Oron River empties into the Atlantic. With many hidden tributaries and beaches, traffickers can easily move children free from the observation of both the Immigration authority and the Navy. Etisong beach and Usung beach are some of the smaller beaches via which children are reportedly transported to Gabon and Cameroun.
The Akwa Ibom State government was embarrassed into quickly enacting the Child Rights Act (CRA), five years after it had been adopted on the national level, following the release of the video.
However, the Nigerian Foreign Affairs minister, Ojo Madueke, says child rights promotion is a major programme of the Federal government which he also said is working to ensure the full implementation and enforcement of the 2003 Act. This claim was made during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Nigeria's human rights records in Geneva on Monday.
However, Ehindero, who serves as a consultant to the anti-trafficking agency, refutes this claim. "I am only aware that there was a proposal for the translation of the Act two years ago during one of the stake holders' fora. The proposal is now being processed," the academic says. He also said that the Act has to go beyond enactment to implementation.
"No state is implementing the law really in Nigeria, so NAPTIP is trying to get some core elements of the law incorporated into the NAPTIP law," he says.
Lucky Inyang, the programme director of Stepping Stones Nigeria Child Empowerment Foundation (SSNCEF), an NGO in Akwa Ibom that helped bring the child witches syndrome to light, shares Ehindero's position.
"About the enactment of the Child Rights Act, the government makes provisions in the law but with no basis for the implementation. The problem is how to evaluate the process of the implementation of the law," says Mr. Inyang.
Uduak of the Uyo Zonal office of the anti-trafficking agency, hopes officials will temper their enthusiasm and match hope with reality. Some zones do not have a centre to house children recovered from traffickers, Uduak said, giving the example of Uyo as a ‘Pathetic Case'.
While fingers continue to wag in the direction of the state as a haven for trafficking, officials of the Nigerian Navy and immigration in Oron are claiming ignorance of any form of child-trafficking in the region, despite claims by officials and individuals in the community that children are trafficked via these coastal borders.
"We work in partnership with the Police, Navy, and the Immigration. We receive tips from them," says Mr. Orakwe. But even with this statement from the anti-trafficking agency official and official data from the UN and UNICEF, a Nigerian Navy official, who is stationed at the Naval Base in Ibaka, Akwa Ibom, claimed to be unaware of any child trafficking cases.
"We've not been having cases of trafficking...maybe it happens in other regions but not here. It is possible but we don't have any cases of child trafficking," he maintained.
Prof. Ehindero, however, claims that this is an indication of corruption on the part of the Nigerian Immigration Service.
"There is substantial corruption in the Immigration. We believe that there is collusion between some Immigration officers and traffickers. Sometimes when we press, they retrieve the children and refuse to give us the traffickers," he said.
"Corruption is a major factor militating against the fight against child trafficking," he fumed.
Traffickers are not ghosts. They are not some faceless evil men stealing children from their homes and trading them for wealth. They come as aunties, uncles, cousins and friends, extending love to distant relatives. They come as job consultants, promising lucrative employment in faraway lands. They come in form of chiefs, Obas, and religious leaders.
"We have had cases of religious leaders who traffic children to Saudi Arabia under the cover of pilgrimage. While there, they send these children to beg and then return home with foreign currency. We have also had chiefs who have trafficked children to Trinidad and Tobago under the guise of attending cultural festivals. They traffic these children for sexual exploitation," says Prof Ehindero bitterly.
Trafficking in human beings, especially in children, has been described as an affront to human rights and human dignity.