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By ChiomaOkezie-Okeh
Jude was seven when he got missing. He was found at a popular motor park in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, wandering about, searching for a man believed to have taken him away from his parents.
“I am going to Lagos”, he kept emphasising when Mrs. Jacinta Nworie, Director General, Hand That Care Foundation, noticed him and sought to know where his parents or guardian were.
The little boy burst into tears when it dawned on him that he was lost and no longer going to Lagos. He narrated to Mrs Nworie that he was going to Lagos to work and make money for his family.
Jude is one of several kids taken from their homes with a promise to better their lives. Recently a middle-aged man, OnyedinkaEsiala, who hails from Enugu State, was caught using children suffering from fake stomach tumour to beg for alms at Mile 2, Lagos. He accused one Uche, his alleged boss, of initiating the scam. He alleged that Uche brings kids to Lagos every year whenever he travels to the Eastern part of the country.
Said Onyedinka: “Whenever I am about to take the kids from Orile to Mile 2 pedestrian bridge, my Oga would give them drugs – I don’t know the name of the medicines – which would make their stomachs swell for some hours, and the kids’ mothers are aware of the business. Their mothers stay in the village.
“The children were staying with them in the village before they gave them to my Oga to come to Lagos. The girls are not my sisters, but their mother often brings them to my Oga. Some kids stay a year with us, and half of the money made from begging is sent to their mothers in the village. My Ogagives them some black drugs.”
Saturday Sun learnt that after thorough questioning, Oyedinka was handed over to the police at the Nigeria Police Station Area E, Festac.
Lagos State Police spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin, a Superintendent of Police confirmed the arrest and said that investigation was on-going to track down Uche who is currently on the run. He said: “Most of the children have been reunited with their parents. It is very important for parents to note that they will also be held responsible for handing over underage children to persons in exchange for money.”
Jude’s desire to travel to Lagos
Little Jude has since started school in Abakaliki. He’s hopeful that someday he will achieve his dream of going to Lagos. He told Saturday Sun that the man who took him from his village would put him inside an airplane. “We will have plenty money and plenty food for my brothers and sisters.”
When asked about his village, Jude said: “It is very far away. We have plenty trees and a river.”
According to MrsNworie who is also the Chatter President, Ebonyi Gold Lions Club, Jude is temporarily under her custody. “He was left at a motor park by a suspected recruitment agent or kidnapper that took him from his home. I guess there was a mix up and he strayed away. He does not know his way back home nor could he remember the name of his village. All he could remember was that he is heading to Lagos to make money and send to his parents.
“He is living with me and his upkeep is sponsored by the wife of Ebonyi State governor, RachaelUmahi. She registered him under her foundation known as Family Succour and Upliftment Foundation,” she stated.
Citing instances, MrsNworie claimed that she has lost count of the number of personsrescued by her organisation in the past two years.
She said: “There was a pathetic case weeks ago, and we are still battling to convince the child to open up. The girl, who is about 14, was rescued from a home in Ebonyi and she is pregnant. She told us that she was taken from her parents when she was ten to serve as a domestic servant in Lagos. She was abused by several employers and forced to abort several pregnancies. Unfortunately, the current pregnancy was detected when it was already five months. The agent who took her from her parents was the one who lured her down to Ebonyi when they discovered that she was pregnant. The intention was to give birth to the child and sell to the highest bidder.
“It was a whistle blower who drew our attention to the plight of a pregnant girl that was forced into prostitution. We arrested that agent and rescued the girl; they have brainwashed her so much that she is ready to sell the baby and return to Lagos. She is currently under the care of the Ebonyi State Ministry of Welfare.
“The most recent of them all is that of a nine-year-old child that I saw in a restaurant. She was alone and I asked her where she was headed. She told me Lagos and that she was waiting for the person that would take her there.
“Luckily, the man who left her there came and said they were going to Onitsha. When he realised that we were ready to make trouble, he ran away. We were able to trace her parents and realised that the mother could barely feed her children. The mother, who has six others,said she decided to send the children out so that they would not die of hunger. The wife of our governor is also assisting the woman to start up a business that could help her while the girl is on scholarship.”
Parents liable
Human rights activist and founder of Esther Child Rights Foundation, Mrs Esther Ekwemsaid there is an increase in the number of children moved from villages to towns by suspected recruitment agencies.
“Many of such children have been rescued by my organisation. Paulina was seven when she was brought from Calabar to Lagos by her father’s sister in February. Before our intervention, we realised that Paulina was moved to the streets to sell every day. Failure to get good sales earned her slaps from her aunt. The neighbours alerted us, and we retrieved her from the woman and sent her back to her family. My foundation is taking care of her education and maintenance.
“Also, Halima, an eleven-year-old Ghanaian, was brought to Lagos by her parents and handed over to a woman in Lagos to serve as a domestic servant. Halima was forced to sell sachet water and a stipend was sent to her parents every month. It was the concerned neighbours who also discovered that she was also sexually abused by the children of her employer that reported the matter to us.
“Another case is that of nine-year-old girl whose mother collected money from several men and allowed them to have sex with her. I shed tears when the girl innocently narrated how the mother praised her and said she was sent by God to deliver their family from poverty. The case is still on and we have started the process of counselling.”
She called on government to aggressively enforce existing laws and jail parents who are mostly responsible for the increase. “Most of these children were brought to Lagos and their parents are aware. If you walk around Lagos, anywhere you spot a child begging, look closer, you will find a parent or guardian waiting to collect the proceeds. Even when they are rescued, if you do not monitor them, they will still send them back. NAPTIP is also doing an amazing job but government needs to create a good and well-funded home where these children will be kept. If you rescue and do not care for them their lives will be worse than it was.”
Parents, Guardians risk jail term –NAPTIP spokesman
Meanwhile, spokesman for the National Agency for The Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, ZakariaDauda called on Nigerians to help a distressed child by reporting any act of child labour around them. He said: “The entire citizenry is enjoined to report cases of child labour in form of alms begging where the child appears to be used in less dignifying ways to the following numbers. NAPTIP toll free number: 080CALLNAPTIP, 07030000203, Short code: 627
“The Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, (2015) (TIPPEA ACT) and the Violence against Persons (Prohibition) Act, 2015(VAPP ACT) the enabling Laws of the Agency do not specifically have provisions criminalizing or punishing parents who use their children for alms begging.
“However, Section 23 0f the TIPPEA Act criminalises the act of requiring a child to do any work that is exploitative, injurious or hazardous to the physical, social and psychological development of the child.
“Therefore, a parent who uses his/her child for alms begging could be prosecuted under the section because of the exposure of the child to the harsh environment.”
Amber alert
Also, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and Meta (Owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) have partnered on measures that would facilitate quick recovery of missing children in Nigeria with the use of technology. According to the agency, an expansion in the partnership, which started in 2020, led to the official launch of AMBER Alert in Nigeria on 28th September 2022. The AMBER Alert programme is aimed at helping find abducted children by sending AMBER Alert to the local Facebook and Instagram community within a 160-kilometre radius from where the child is last seen. Also enabling them to share the information instantly with friends or contact the authorities if they have leads.
During its recent launch, AdaoraIkenze, Head of Public Policy, Anglophone West Africa, Meta, expressed optimism about the future of this partnership in helping recover missing children. According to her, “The value of technology lies in its ability to drive solutions for real-life problems”. She invites the public, particularly Facebook and Instagram Users to join forces with NAPTIP and Meta to make the dream work, noting that the overarching aim is to galvanise the community by leveraging technology to get the right information to the right audience at the right time. “If you see AMBER Alert, please pay attention,” she stressed.
