Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press:
Permit me to address you on the extraordinary and unprecedented events
of the past two weeks, in which the videotapes of two Nigerian girls,
known from the videotapes as Precious and Chisom taken on separations,
were shown on Facebook, Whatsapp, and several social media platforms,
and the Internet in general.
As is now well known, I was among
the many citizens of this world who were incensed by the extreme act of
videotaping the nudity of a person, with a view to using such a
videotape as an instrument of control, subjugation or extortion. I
joined in condemning that act. I initiated in my modest ways debates and
discussions on it. As an international human right lawyer, generally, I
considered those videos, in their various contexts, gross violations of
fundamental human rights under the United Nations convention on rights
as well as under the Constitutions of both Nigeria , of which these
girls are citizens, and the United Arab Emirates, in which the
video-recordings were done.
Preliminary investigations led us to a
clique or a network of people, comprising of individuals in the United
Arab Emirates, working with collaborators and agents in Nigeria, all
apparently protected and facilitated by some members of the Nigerian
Immigration authorities, who engage in human trafficking. This clique is
a part of an international cartel in charge of trafficking of young
women, and even minors, across international boundaries for forced
prostitution.
The circumstances of these girls, with whom we
have now been in touch, reveal the following essential elements of human
trafficking:
(a) They were victims of violence or threat of violence against them or their family members;
(b) They were harmed or deprived of basic necessities, such as food and
shelter as means of securing their obedience to the dictates of the
traffickers;
(c) They were given false promises of good job in the UAE;
(d) They were restricted from contact with friends or family;
(e) Their freedom of movement was limited;
(f) Their identification documents were fraudulently manipulated and compromised or otherwise controlled by the traffickers;
(g) They were constantly threatened with deportation or law enforcement action;
(h) The money and gifts they received, even from the act of
prostitution, were confiscated by the traffickers to pay off some bogus
and illegal debts allegedly owed to the traffickers, and
(i)
They were subjected to pagan rituals and oath-taking procedures with
threats of dare supernatural consequences for them and their families in
the vent they failed to comply with the dictates of the traffickers.
There is no doubt in our mind that those who have been subjected to
this cruel treatment qualify for all the protections the law has for
victims of human trafficking. Also, there is no doubt as the grave legal
penalties that should await those who engage in this sort of criminal
conduct.
I have raised these issues from the point of view of a
human right lawyer and a public interest advocate. In that capacity, I
have received support from people all over the world who are prepared to
join in the fight against human trafficking for sex-slavery.
Today, and in respect of this particular statement, I wear a slightly
different hat. I stand before you today as a lawyer, who has been
retained by Precious and Chisom and their families. My law firm, ECULAW,
has been engaged to act as Counsel for in investigating the cases of
these two wonderful and brave young women, and in enforcing their rights
accordingly.
In this context, I make bold to say that my clients
are two wonderful young Nigerian women who were forced by economic
hardship to seek ways, including dangerous ways, to better their lives.
While my clients are not saints, they are not worse than you or I. They
may be more naïve, more reckless and less lucky than other Nigerians,
which was why they believed that life outside Nigeria would be
automatically better than life in Nigeria. They believed the lies they
were told. They did not understand the processes and complexities of the
system they were walking into once they agreed to travel to Dubai.
They did not understand that they would end up owing someone more money
than they could ever finish paying or the detailed circumstances that
would surround the computation of their bogus debts. They never
understood that they would lose their right to say no to a person who
would have sex with them. They never understood that they would lose
their rights to walk freely in the streets at any time of their
choosing. They never understood that someone would forcibly videotape
them and disseminate such videos without their permission. They never
understood nor did they expect the horrible things that happened to
them. The two ladies were beaten, tortured and assaulted regularly by
those in control over them. One of them was routinely raped by her
bisexual Madam. Their monies were stolen and confiscated. The showing of
the videotapes was a culmination of months of callous bestiality and
depravity they suffered in the hands of their captors.
My clients
have suffered gross violations of their privacy rights, degrading and
inhuman treatment, vicious savagery, loss of family life, loss of
liberty, threat to life, loss of property rights, and almost all other
essential rights and freedoms recognized by human civilization. Those
who violated their rights must be held accountable under the law and
must pay damages for their excessively vicious conduct.
The
ordeal that my client went through continues to place them in danger and
some of the deprivations suffered by them are of a continuing nature.
My primary goal at this point, apart from my general work against human
trafficking, is to ensure the safety of my clients and to make sure they
return to Nigeria and rejoin their families soon. Next, I face the task
of helping my clients to start the long and improbable journey toward
restoring or regaining their seriously damaged dignity and esteem.
I can understand that the public would like to know more details about
what transpired, and that is a legitimate public interest factor. But at
the same time, we crave the sympathy of the public for these women’s
privacy. We must therefore urge that there be some balancing act between
the public’s right to know and the victims right to peace and privacy.
In this regard, we request every person who is in possession of the
videotapes in any form whatsoever to destroy them and to stop further
dissemination thereof. It is important to know that even though you did
not cause the videotape to be sent to you, disseminating them or storing
them is inappropriate and might be illegal. The least you can do for us
is to not further the shame and indignities that my clients have been
put through by criminals.
My office will be available to answer
any questions about our work on these cases as would be appropriate
communication from a lawyer. I thank you for your time and attention.
God bless.
ECULAW & CO.
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