Sorcerers paying homahe to Oba Ewuare II before performing the oath revoking curses

Jethro Ibileke/Benin

The Network of Civil Society Against Human Trafficking (NCAHT), has hailed the Benin Monarch, Oba Ewuare II, over his collaborative efforts in the war against human trafficking, irregular migration and other social vices.

President of NCAHT, Ms. Jennifer Ero, in a statement she issued in Benin, described last Friday’s meeting convened by the Monarch, at which human traffickers and their collaborators were cursed, as apt and key to end the scourge of illegal migration and criminal activities in the State.

The meeting was attended by Edionwere (Heads of clans), sorcerers, chiefs, Enigie (Dukes) priests and priestesses in Edo State whom the Monarch also mandated to revoke the oaths placed on trafficked victims in the State.

Ms. Ero expressed confidence that the initiative is worthwhile and it will ease prosecution process of suspected human traffickers.

“I am indeed very grateful to the Oba of Benin for this new development to set our young ones free from bondage, especially the female victims. It’s obviously what the victims have been praying for. It’s indeed a liberation for all victims of human trafficking. Their ultimate fear has been broken. For us, this is freedom at last.

“We will spread this great news to all the victims all over the world that they have been set free from the oaths they have taken which would no longer kill them as the traffickers made them believe,” she said.

It would be recalled that the Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Dame Julie Okah-Donli, had recently lamented the difficulty in prosecuting human traffickers as victims are not willing to come out to testify due to the oaths of secrecy they were subjected to.

NCAHT has been at the forefront in the campaign against human trafficking, illegal migration, violence against women and children.