Three University of Lagos (UNILAG) undergraduates have developed software that will locate human traffickers. The innovation will also track, rescue, rehabilitate and create awareness on the societal vice. Furthermore, the software would help both trafficked victims and their loved ones learn about human trafficking and access to tools that can potentially save them.

The Outreach and Communication Officer of the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), Sylvester Atere announced this on Wednesday, 27th March 2019. According to a statement by the outreach, the students were named winners of the “Hackathon for Justice” event organised in Lagos. The event was in Partnership with Facebook and African TeenGeeks.

Over 50 university undergraduates from various public and private universities in Nigeria participated in the event.

Atere also said that the coding marathon was part of UNODC’s Education for Justice (E4J) initiative. It is a component of the Global Programme for implementation of the Doha Declaration.

The three undergraduates were David Popoola, Eyitayo Ogunbiyi and Chukwudumebi Onwuli. They are students of System Engineering and Computer Engineering departments in UNILAG.

The students developed the software after a 29-hour coding marathon. They led the competition that had upcoming professionals with their web application design. The event took place between 22nd and 23rd March.

The goal of the hackathon event was for participants to use technology to solve challenges. This helps especially in the areas of “corruption, integrity, and ethics; crime prevention and criminal justice; organised crime; human trafficking and terrorism and violent extremism.”

The three young winners will now proceed to the Global #Hackathon4Justice event. The event will hold at the Google Headquarters in Silicon Valley, the United States in August 2019.