By Rosemary Ogbonnaya
Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons,NAPTIP, Dr. Fatima Waziri-Azi has said that in the past one year, the Agency has rescued no fewer than 30 babies from criminal elements, traced the parents and reunited the babies with them.
Waziri-Azi disclosed this in a press statement issued to journalists in Abuja yesterday.
She said those arrested are currently facing prosecution in different Courts across the country for Child Trafficking.
The Director-General issued this statement few lamenting the high rate of human trafficking in Nigeria.
The NAPTIP bos directed all its Zonal and State Commanders across the country to commence surveillance operations to ensure that all child traffickers are apprehended and made to face the wrath of the law.
Waziri-Azi also directed the zonal and state commanders to detect and shut down baby factories and apprehend the operators for prosecution.
in a statement, the director General of NAPTIP equally told them to liaise with other law enforcement agencies within their areas of operation for joint actions to stem the tide of child abduction, trafficking and buying and selling of children.
The NAPTIP boss who made reference to the recent case in the Shongotedo area of Lagos State where a dispatch rider had a child in his dispatch box apparently meant to be delivered to someone, said that such cases should not be allowed to fester in Nigeria.
She stressed the readiness of the Agency to work with the Police to investigate and prosecute all perpetrators of human trafficking and dealers in human beings.
Waziri-Azi who is also an Associate Professor of Law called on members of the public to be vigilant to the happenings within their environment as the criminals involved in the abduction and trafficking of the children wer not strangers.
