Traditional structures of crime control in Lagos,Nigeria

Notwithstanding the embrace of modern institutions of social control, traditional social control mechanisms still enjoy patronage in Nigeria. This paper examines the traditional structures of social control in Iraye-Oke, Lagos. In-depth interviews, key informant interviews and case studies were used to obtain data from participants. Findings established the functionality of traditional structures in checking crime and its preference over the use of modern social control structures. Traditional structures used include: traditional spiritualists who provide measures to reduce victimisation; the family courts where adjudication takes place involving elders and family chiefs; and the apex traditional court, presided over by the king, where cases like murder, land disputes, adultery and fornication are decided. Traditional extrajudicial measures involve the invocation of ancestral spirits at shrines.     

Recruitment and abuse of trafficked children in south-west Nigeria

This article examines the recruitment and transportation of internally trafficked children from Benue State in the north-central geo-political zone of Nigeria to Oyo State in the south-western zone of Nigeria. The study is essentially qualitative: with the aid of the snowball sampling technique, in-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted with drivers, employers and trafficking agents in two recipient communities in Ibadan. The findings show that human rights abuses manifest at the recruitment, transportation and destination phases. The human rights abuses include the recruitment of underage children for domestic work outside their immediate family environments; transportation under inhumane conditions; restriction of movement at traffickers' ‘warehouses’; non-disclosure of amount payable for the services of domestic servants by agents/traffickers; exclusion of domestic servants in wage negotiations; and violence by employers. In view of these, there is a need for the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons to strengthen its internal trafficking campaign.