…As David Mark tells EFCC on N748m house: you’re chasing shadows P5***
The Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons(NAPTIP), Julie Okah-Donli, has disclosed that more than 25,000 Nigerians have been held in slave and sex camps in Lybia.
Okah-Donli made this known while defending the agency’s 2018 budget before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters on Tuesday.
She said of the figure, about 5000 of the victims were repatriated within the period.
”A large number of Nigerians have also been returned from other countries in Europe and Africa.
”All these people need to be properly received, profiled and assisted.
”NAPTIP has been working in conjunction with other governmental and non governmental agencies such as NEMA, International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and others to provide help to these unfortunate Nigerians,”she said.
She lamented that in spite of the evils of human trafficking not so much attention was focused on the menace.
She said the recent trend which marked the resurgence of slave trade was more alarming and required the attention it deserved.
According to her, the task before the agency is enormous while budgetary allocations have been comparatively low.
”It is my honour and privilege to raise a cry for help in this hallowed chamber on behalf of the most vulnerable members of the society, especially women and children.
”In recent months the odious and perverse consequences of human trafficking and irregular migration were forcefully brought to our television screens with gory tales,”she said.
She said if human trafficking was to be reduced or eliminated, massive public awareness as well as behavourial change campaigns must be sustained from the grassroots to the national level.
The NAPTIP boss further said many victims of trafficking needed to undergo skills acquisition training or formal education.
The NAPTIP bossm however, commended the Federal Government and other stakeholders for their support in the wake of recent slave trade of Africans.
”I wish to place on record my deep appreciation to President Muhammad Buhari for consistently putting the issue of human trafficking at the centre of global discourse at various international for a.
”In the aftermath of the recent crisis stemming from the inhuman treatment of Nigerians in Libya and elsewhere, both the Presidency and National Assembly came out strongly with statements band actions to to strengthen national response to irregular migration, ”she said.
In the meantime, A former Senate President, Senator David Mark, yesterday said the accusations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or any other government that he purchased his N748 million Apo Residential House illegally were spurious, contrived and baseless.
He said the EFCC or any other agency were chasing shadows in probing how he bought his house.
He insisted that he did not flout any law.
Mark, who made the clarifications in a statement through his Media Assistant, Paul Mumeh, said if his investigation was about 2019 politics, “no amount of persecution would alter the will of God”.
The ex-Senate President is presently being probed by the EFCC and the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property.
The statement said: “The property was ‘duly offered for sale, bid for, and purchased like any other person would in line with Federal Government’s Monetisation Policy that was started during the time of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“I had the right of first refusal. Even if I did not purchase it, someone else would have.
“I am a law-abiding citizen. I did not flout any law.
“Curiously, four houses occupied by the then Presiding Officers of National Assembly were offered to the occupants. All of us, me as the then President of the Senate, Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole and his Deputy Bayero Nafada were all given the same offer.
“I am at a loss as to why it is now a subject of contention.”
He said if he was being investigated because of 2019 politics, no one can alter the will of God
The statement added: “If this persecution is about politics, my political party and the 2019 elections, I dare say that only God and Nigerians would decide. No amount of persecution would alter the will of God.
“I had refrained from commenting on this because it is already in the law Court. But they have taken the matter to the court of public opinion.”
“Senator Mark through his lawyer Ken Ikonne in the suit before the Federal High Court, Abuja had said that he followed due process and legally acquired the property from the FCDA on April 27, 2011.
“Senator Mark is also asking the court for a declaration that an order by the Attorney General of the Federation and one Obono Obla of the Presidential Task Force on Recovery of Government Properties compelling him to vacate the aforesaid property without affording him a fair hearing amounted to a denial of his fundamental human rights, unconstitutional and void.
“He recalled that the Federal Executive Council decided to authorise the sale of the properties housing the principal officers of the National Assembly because the general security of the area had been altered/compromised due to the sale of the other houses in the Legislative Quarters to the public.
“Consequent upon which the houses were offered for sale and duly purchased.
“Senator Mark was given the first option of refusal upon which he duly accepted on April 21st 2011 and paid the agreed purchase price to the ad hoc committee on sale of Federal Government houses on April 27, 2011
Additional report from Nation
