Nigerians have been urged to join hands in the fight against human trafficking.
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) said Nigerians who seek a better future for the country must join in the fight against this menace.
The Director in charge of Training and Manpower Development in NAPTIP, Mr. Arinze Orakwe, made the appeal while in Lagos.
He described as worrisome, the increasing number of Nigerians trafficked by trafficking cartels locally and across the globe.
“It is more worrisome the rate underaged Nigerians are being trafficked within the country into brothel,” he lamented
Osakwe said as at May 2023, the anti-human trafficking agency had rescued and sheltered about 13,026 females, 4,727 males and 8, 935 children from the trafficking syndicates.
He said the most pathetic of the situation was that many of the trafficked persons’ organs have been tampered with.
“The victims were usually served drinks laced with drugs before organ harvesters took advantage of them as most of the victims only knew after being rescued,” he said .
He pleaded with parents to monitor their wards round-the- clock to ensure they did not fall prey to those syndicates.
He urged parents and guardians to ensure their wards travel out of the country through safe migration pathways.
He further urged stakeholders in the fight against the menace to report brothels that engaged underaged Nigerians to the police or the agency .
According to him, NAPTIP has shut down many brothels across the country, especially the ones that engaged the services of underaged Nigerians.
