Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday ruled that the National Agency For the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP) can prosecute a 50-year-old man, Yesiri Onajobi, who allegedly impregnated his 14-year old daughter.
Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, who made the ruling, discharged an application challenging its competence and jurisdiction to determine the incest case brought before it.
The defence counsel, Mr. Austin Akpormeta, had challenged the competence of NAPTIP in prosecuting the accused.
He had argued that the prosecutor, (NAPTIP), did not obtain the fiat of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), before prosecuting the case.
He also argued that the prosecutor had no authority to sign a charge on behalf of the AGF.
At the resumed hearing yesterday, the trial judge, Justice Aneke, held that NAPTIP was an agency established by an Act of the National Assembly.
He said that NAPTIP was therefore directly under the office of the AGF, and could prosecute using the name of the AGF without necessarily obtaining a fiat from the AGF.
He further said that the laws relied upon by NAPTIP on the charge of incest brought against the accused proved that an offence was actually committed which showed that NAPTIP had power to prosecute.
According to him, “it should be noted that NAPTIP being created by an Act of the National Assembly does not require authority of the AGF to institute the case”.
