Olaleye Aluko
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons said on Friday that 331 persons had been convicted for various human trafficking offences in the country.
The Director-General, NAPTIP, Julie Okah-Donli, said this at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja while receiving the United States’ anti-trafficking delegation.
The delegation was led by the Acting Director, US Trafficking in Persons Office, Washington, DC, Ms Kari JohnStone.
The NAPTIP DG, who was represented by the Director, Public Enlightenment, Arinze Orakwe, said, “We call on the US and other international partners to come up with a policy that will ensure increased surveillance in the form of security checks along the controversial migrating routes especially within the North African countries. This will complement the efforts of Nigeria in combating human trafficking and reduce the associated tragedies.
“The number of convictions the agency has secured since inception is now 331 as of September 2017. This feat is commendable considering the series of technicalities associated with prosecution of cases such as human trafficking.”
The US director, JohnStone, said the Trafficking in Persons rating done for Nigeria was based on other controversial issues of child soldiers in the North as well as the situation in the Internally Displaced Persons camps in some parts of the country.
The US official noted that the TIP report was not an indictment on NAPTIP, but rather to spur policymakers, government and non-governmental actors to accord the desired attention to curbing the menace of human trafficking.
JohnStone gave an assurance that the United States would consider possible assistance to NAPTIP in the areas of awareness creation, capacity development and other operational needs.
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