Operatives of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) have rescued seven persons who were being prepared to be trafficked to Baghdad, Iraq, for exploitation.
The seven victims were freed during a raid on a popular hotel located at Zamaru, a few kilometres away from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
According to a statement signed on Sunday by the press officer of NAPTIP, Vincent Adekoye, the raid which also led to the arrest of the manager of the hotel followed credible intelligence from concerned stakeholders who noticed the unusual movement of some young girls and strange-looking men within the flourishing hotel thereby indicating that the facilities are being used to harbour victims of human trafficking.
Adekoye recalled the agency had in the last few months intercepted no fewer than 60 suspected victims of human trafficking at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on their way to some of the volatile and war-torn countries in the Middle East.
He noted that a critical profiling of the rescued victims indicated that six of them were deceived and recruited from Lagos while one is from Delta State.
Adekoye said as it was the case with other rescued victims in the past, the victims were deceived with a promise of a caregiving job in Iraq and are signed off into slavery by two sets of recruiters whose identities are not known to them.
“They told me that I will do a house-help job in Baghdad and I will receive good salary every month. I believed them because I think say Baghdad is in another country. Them no tell me say I dey go work for Iraq”, one of them recalled with tears as she narrated her ordeal in the hands of the recruiter to officials of NAPTIP.
Meanwhile, while speaking on the development, the Director General of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, expressed displeasure over the roles of some unscrupulous service providers in the recruitment and trafficking of Nigerians for various forms of exploitation and warned that henceforth the agency shall invoke the relevant provisions of its Law to prosecute erring entities.
Represented by the Director, Research and Programme Development, Mr. Josiah Emerole, the Director General said, “It is sad the way some of the service providers in the country aid and abet the recruitment, transportation, transfers, and harbouring of Nigerians who are victims of human trafficking.
“The hotel is believed to be a muster point for victims of human trafficking to some of the notorious destination countries. The manager of the hotel is being quizzed and we have also intensified the manhunt for other members of the trafficking gang working in collaboration with other criminal elements in Iraq”.
“The suspected victims are trafficked from different parts of the country and harboured in the hotel. They are further briefed on how to evade arrest at any point by disguising themselves in various forms and answering questions from law enforcement officers at the airport.”
The Director General added that: “Due to the unpatriotic roles of some of these service providers, the agency shall henceforth invoke the appropriate section of its law to prosecute them.
“This is because harbouring suspected victims of human trafficking is also an offense in the trafficking law.”
