NAPTIP Lauds Air Peace over Fight against Human Trafficking …UNILAG students develop software to unmask traffickers

 

 The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has urged other domestic airlines to emulate Air Peace, which has shown commitment in curbing human trafficking in Nigeria.

 This is coming as three students of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) have developed software to unmask human traffickers as well as track and rescue victims while also creating awareness about the odious industry.

NAPTIP said Air Peace has always identified and notified concerned agencies about traffickers on its fights.

 Speaking on Thursday during an award presentation ceremony to Air Peace in Lagos, Director General of NAPTIP, Julie Dame Okah-Donli, said the event was to honour the patriotic and humane action of men and women who operated on Air Peace Lagos-Banjul flight P47560 on June 4, 2018, and three other flight incidents where human trafficking was aborted.

Okah-Donli recalled that on that fateful day, the vigilant crew of Air Peace flight foiled an attempt by two Nigerian women to traffic a three-month-old baby boy from Nigeria to Banjul in The Gambia.

 "The supposed mother could not breastfeed the baby who was crying persistently, but rather, asked the crew for water to feed the baby. This aroused the suspicion of the crew members who tipped off the airport security on arrival in Banjul," she said.

 Also, in January 2019, Air Peace uncovered and foiled an attempt to traffic a three-day-old baby boy from Port Harcourt to Lagos.

 She explained that the newborn was on the verge of being flown by a middle-aged woman to Lagos when the crew intervened and drew the attention of the police.

"If all airlines and transport companies were as vigilant as Air Peace, the stories of those Nigerians who are currently trapped in sex and labour slavery along West African Coast, in the hot deserts of North Africa and the by-way to Europe would be very different.

 

"I seize this occasion to draw the attention of airlines and tour operators, transporters and travel agents to the extant provision of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015, which mandates them to take specific steps to ensure their vessels or vehicles are not used for the purpose of trafficking in persons," the director general said.

She assured Nigerians that the ceremony represented NAPTIP's determination to recognise and encourage such feats, which contribute to the stemming of the tide of human trafficking in Nigeria, adding that the agency is proud to present an award to Air Peace and decorate the chairman of the airline and the crew members with ambassadorial medals. 

Also speaking at the occasion, Chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, commended the agency for the recognition and award and its efforts to address the issue of human trafficking.

Onyema said the management of the airline has consistently imbued in its staff the required professional trainings, values and cultures to fight human trafficking.

He promised to partner NAPTIP to employ persons that are victims of human trafficking as staff of Air Peace airlines.

"Give us a list of the victims, we will interview them and employ them. It is not enough stopping them from being trafficked. If we don't have plans to engage them, it becomes a problem. This is about mankind and humanity and we must all be involved," the chairman told the agency.

 

Meanwhile, three students of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) have developed software to unmask human traffickers, track and rescue victims as well as creating awareness about the ‘odious’ industry.

According to a statement issued on Thursday by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the students emerged winners of Hackathon for Justice at an event organised in Lagos by the UNODC in partnership with Facebook and Africa TeenGeeks, which was designed to spark creativity in young people while pushing their coding capabilities for 24 hours.

According to the organisation, “The goal of the Hackathon was for participants to leverage on technology to find solutions to rule of law challenges in the areas of corruption, integrity and ethics; crime prevention and criminal justice; organised crime; human trafficking, terrorism and violent extremism. Beyond educating young people about the global challenges to the rule of law, E4J also seeks to inspire them to be part of their solution and become positive agents of change in their societies. This goal is only attainable by giving youths a say in matters related to crime, justice and the rule of law.”

The trio of David Popoola, Eyitayo Ogunbiyi and Chukwudumebi Onwuli of System Engineering and Computer Engineering departments of the university led the pack of upcoming professionals with their web application design that helps both trafficked victims and their loved ones learn about human trafficking and access to tools that can potentially save them.

Tagged: ‘Let's Fight Trafficking’ or ‘TFL’ for short, the key features of the product include an e-learning planning platform to help educate people on human trafficking; a facial recognition system that matches feed from webcams and other images to see if there already exists a reported case with a similar image in the database; a portal for victim's close friends to come file reports about trafficking cases in their area and a heat map, generated from report data to let users know where trafficking is most prevalent and take preventive measures.

The winners are expected to proceed to Global Hackathon for Justice to be held at the Google Headquarters in Silicon Valley, in the United States in August where they will participate as mentors.

The runner up were four students from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, who designed ‘Athena’ a mobile application that allows people to report crime incidents and gain information about their rights. People can also report emergencies with just few clicks, and the application automatically detects the location of the user and composes a report. It also provides anonymity and protects the identity of whistle blowers.

Out of 400 applications received from university students across Nigeria, over 50 university undergraduates from Caleb University, Covenant University, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Benin, Babcock University, as well as Yaba College of Technology participated in the event.

On the ground to inspire and mentor the young coders were Iyinoluwa Samuel Aboyeji, Co-founder of Nigerian startup Andela and founder of Flutterwave and a number of Software Engineers from Facebook.