By Bukola Adetoye
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), has secured the conviction of 42 human traffickers this year, according to its Director-General, NAPTIP, Mrs Fatima Waziri-Azi.
The NAPTIP boss disclosed this at an on-going workshop organised for media practitioners in Lagos on Thursday.
She said that those convicted were traffickers “diligently prosecuted from January to June 14, 2023”.
Waziri-Azi was represented by Mr Arinze Orakwe, the Director in charge of Training and Manpower Development.
She warned human trafficking criminals to turn a new leaf as the agency would soon catch up with them.
“The human trafficking industry yields as high as $150 billion annually and globally from harvesting human skin, liver, pancreas, kidney, among others.
“I want to plead with the Christian Association of Nigeria, the Muslim Society of Nigeria and other religions bodies to join hands with NAPTIP to wage war against these criminals,” she said.
The NAPTIP boss said that the syndicates were attracted to the huge financial earnings and had consistently evolved new tactics to capture their victims.
She assured Nigerians that NAPTIP was up to the task of defeating the syndicates, “no matter how deceptive they become.
Waziri-Azi appealed to Nigerians to expose individuals and syndicates that were harvesting human organs for sale.
She urged Nigerians, who wanted to travel out of the country, to always follow safe migration pathways.
“Travelers should get all necessary information on the destination country and procure right travelling documents, among others.
“Travelers and their families should also avoid the desperation to make wealth which makes them contract travelling consultants, as some of them may belong to organ harvesting syndicates,” the NAPTIP boss warned.
She expressed regret that financial greed had blinded many parents to the extent that they compromised their wards to these syndicates.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop was for core members of the Trafficking-in-Persons Media Corps.
It was organised by NAPTIP, supported by the Action Against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants (A-TIPSOM) and funded by the European Union (EU). (NAN)
