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From: Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Julie Okah-Donli, has expressed worry over what she described as ignorance of many Nigerians about the presence of modern day slavery despite serious awareness.
Okah-Donli who stated this at a media interaction, in Makurdi, on Monday, during her three-day working visit to Benue State assured that the Agency would not allow any person to be trafficked within or outside Nigeria under any guise.
“Some of these (modern day slavery) include the use of under aged persons as domestic helps or for various exploitative labour situations, transportation and harbouring of trafficked victims and assisting human traffickers in any manner including recruitment of victims.”
The DG also lamented the new dimension of organ harvesting and mass recruitment of unsuspecting young persons from Nigeria by labour recruiters purporting to place them in various jobs to various parts of the world including Dubai and Saudi Arabia in recent times.
The NAPTIP boss disclosed that she had already directed investigation into the ugly development with a view to brining anyone found culpable to book.
She noted that her vision is to re-engineer the Agency to take it to its proper place as a specialised crime fighting agency that is foremost in the suppression and elimination of trafficking in persons with specific focus on awareness creation, advocacy, law enforcement, capacity development and comprehensive rehabilitation of trafficked victims.
Okah-Donli said as part of that vision, officers of the Agency have already commenced a weekly sensitisation campaign by moving into streets and at various public places around the country to educate members of the public on the ills of human trafficking.
