The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) said it arrested five suspected traffickers and rescued 24 victims at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, including a father who attempted to traffic his daughter to Baghdad, Iraq.
NAPTIP spokesperson Vincent Adekoye said the operation, led by the agency’s Director General Binta Adamu Bello, followed credible intelligence and caught the suspects by surprise. Among those arrested was a retired senior officer of a law enforcement agency, allegedly a key member of a trafficking syndicate in the South-West.
The victims, aged 15 to 26, had been recruited from Kano, Katsina, Oyo, Ondo, and Rivers states and were being trafficked to Iraq, Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Afghanistan. One of them vowed to ensure her father faced prosecution, saying he deceived her into believing she was going to work in a Baghdad supermarket. “I am seriously annoyed with my father because he deceived me. He did not tell me that Baghdad is in Iraq. If that is what awaits me there, I will not go,” she said. Another victim revealed her mother was misled into thinking she was headed to Europe to work and earn in dollars.
The DG expressed concern over traffickers and unregistered labour recruiters exploiting Nigerians. “I am impressed with the outcome of the operation today because we were able to arrest five suspected members of the trafficking gang that have been recruiting and trafficking our citizens to various tension-soaked countries, especially in the Middle East, for exploitation,” Bello said.
In August, NAPTIP intercepted 25 women suspected of being trafficked to Saudi Arabia for labour exploitation. The women, aged 17 to 43, were picked up in front of a hotel in Abuja where they had gathered to meet their trafficker.