Abuja-based human rights lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi has urged the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP) to call one of her staffs to order over unethical and unprofessional conduct at work.
This was contained in a statement released on Wednesday by the managing Partner of Law Corridor, an Abuja-based law firm.
According to Olajengbesi, it is unpleasant to make the discovery that an organization with such noble intent and objective as NAPTIP would be staffed by such unprofessional and unethical personnel who clearly lacks the finesse needed to function in such globally needed agency.
While narrating how he was insulted by the staff of the agency for making inquires about a case of pregnancy out of wedlock, the lawyer said it’s shocking that NAPTIP could employ such staff to attend to people who want to make enquires from the agency.
The lawyer also urged the agency, NAPTIP to call staff to order and protect its image and public perception jealously before a few zealots give it a bad name.
The statement read partly;
‘I am currently handling a matter which is a subject of litigation and at the same time under investigation by the Police. My client got a text from a lady from NAPTIP on behalf of the agency this afternoon requesting for a meeting tomorrow morning.
I respectfully called back, introduced myself and informed the NAPTIP personnel that we will be in Lagos till next week Monday and as such requested for a rescheduling of the invite to Tuesday next week, even knowing that there was no issue with the agency I could put my finger on.
The NAPTIP personnel on the other end of the call rudely interrupted my intercession like one with a pre-conceived bias and angst, and rained insults on me all the while screaming in my ears like a banshee that she wanted to speak directly to my client and not I. I barely got another word in as she drowned my attempt at sanity with loud words like an agbero scuffling for change and when I offered to come to the agency in person today to find an amicable resolution to the debacle, she cut the call on me hissing and howling into the ensuing silence. I was stunned!
I briefly went over the matter in my head, a complete non-issue that has nothing to do with child trafficking which is the strain of NAPTIP’s usual intervention, but is one about a pregnancy out of wedlock, and I could not wrap my head around the vile and hostile words of an agent serving in such a delicate agency. Well she knows her.
Was this a matter of over-zealousness or a ploy to satisfy a bias? Has this matter been colored over by compromises in truth and objectivity and that call was but the act one scene one of an unfolding theatre of absurdity? I can’t tell!
Nonetheless, I have chosen to give NAPTIP the benefit of doubt and put that incident behind me as an isolated anomaly and in the same vein, call on the agency to call its staff to order, and now! NAPTIP must protect its image and public perception jealously before a few zealots give it a bad name.
Some of us have invested in public interest law and the development space to see agencies that should be of global standard act so below requisite standard. This is shameful, sad and regrettable. It must not be allowed to stand, and I hope the authorities within the agency would have the presence of mind to see that such incidences do not repeats themselves to forestall the divestment of public trust and the ensuing upheaval.