LEGAL MECHANISMS FOR COMBATTING VOODOO AND OTHER CONTROL MECHANISMS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN THEUNITED KINGDOM AND NETHERLANDS: LESSONS FOR NIGERIA

Abstract

The use of voodoo and other control mechanisms by traffickers constitute an aspect that aids human trafficking. It has made arrest, investigation and prosecution difficult for our law enforcement agencies. This paper depicts how the law enforcement agencies in Nigeria found it difficult to prosecute traffickers as a result of voodoo and other control mechanisms administered on the victims of human trafficking. This paper further considers how law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom and Netherlands have successfully combatted voodoo and other control mechanisms by enlisting anthropological experts, local priest or cultural experts to combat voodoo and other control mechanisms in human trafficking. This paper concluded that the involvement of cultural experts can contribute to a more comprehensive and successful approach in assisting victims of human trafficking. This paper recommended that the government of Nigeria should borrow a leaf from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands where law enforcement agencies make extra -ordinary efforts to employ and bring local priest, anthropological experts and cultural experts to court to assist in dousing the tension of the victims of human trafficking. This paper also recommended that since voodoo is not expressly stated in the Trafficking in Persons Prohibition Enforcement and Administration Act(TIPPEAA) 2015, the Nigerian government should take a step forward again by amending the principal legislation by making voodoo expressive in the Act not impliedly as it is in the TIPPEAA 2015.