President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
has assented to the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and
Administration Act, 2015.
The President gave the assent on
March 26, 2015.
The Director-General of the National
Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Mrs. Beatrice
Jedy-Agba disclosed this in Abuja during a media briefing.
She stated that the action of the
President followed the completion of the re-enactment of the nation’s anti-human
trafficking legislation by the National Assembly.
According to her, with the
re-enactment and the assent by the President, the Trafficking in Persons
(Prohibition), Law Enforcement and Administration Act 2003 (as amended in 2005)
has been repealed while the new Act is referred to as Trafficking in Persons
(Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015.
Speaking further, she disclosed that
the repealed Act was found to be inadequate to effectively combat the evolving
crime of Trafficking in Persons (TIP), with several new trends which were not
taken into consideration at the time of enactment in 2003.
The criminal justice system
according to her was confronted with several offences, which were not
criminalized even though they were stipulated in the Palermo Protocol. ‘’These
included exploitation for the purpose of organ harvesting and others’’, she
added.
The Director-General also disclosed that several
provisions of the former Act were also found to be inconsistent with the letter
and spirit of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol, Supplementing the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, (Palermo Convention),
2000. In addition, the penalties prescribed for offences stipulated under
the Act were severely inadequate for the purpose of dissuasion and deterrence. 
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