The third phase in the campaign against the slave trade in the hinterland of the Bight of Biafra marked a return to the approach in which direct action was taken against the traffic instead of waiting on the general progress of what was called education and civilization to uproot the evil more or less painlessly in the course of time. And it may well be that the case of the “lucky” Udorie, which took place in Okigwi Division, had something to do with it for, in the Annual Report of Owerri Province for 1932 (the year of the celebrated case), the Resident, Mr. O. W. Firth, had reported to the government that “In Okigwi Division there has been a considerable increase in the number of cases of slave dealing and child stealing. These crimes are particularly common in the Obowo area where there appear to be gangs who carry on a steady trade in stolen children.” In consequence of this astounding revelation, the lieutenant-governor of the Southern Provinces caused the Resident to make further inquiries into the matter and report back to him. Perhaps even more shocking in their details were the reports that followed. The district officer for Okigwi revealed that during the month of May 1933 he had held a meeting of all the heads of towns in the Obowo area to discuss the matter with them, and that “they [had] vociferously affirmed that slave dealing and child stealing was much too prevalent.” They had gone further to give an account of how the trade was conducted and the routes which the traders used to distribute their human wares: