Nigerians’ ignorance of modern slavery menace worries NAPTIP
DG
Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition
of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Julie Okah-Donli, has expressed worry over
what she described as ignorance of many Nigerians about the presence of modern
day slavery despite serious awareness.
Okah-Donli who stated this at a media interaction, in
Makurdi, on Monday, during her three-day working visit to Benue State assured
that the Agency would not allow any person to be trafficked within or outside
Nigeria under any guise.
“Some of these (modern day slavery) include the use of under
aged persons as domestic helps or for various exploitative labour situations,
transportation and harbouring of trafficked victims and assisting human
traffickers in any manner including recruitment of victims.”
The DG also lamented the new dimension of organ harvesting
and mass recruitment of unsuspecting young persons from Nigeria by labour
recruiters purporting to place them in various jobs to various parts of the
world including Dubai and Saudi Arabia in recent times.
The NAPTIP boss disclosed that she had already directed
investigation into the ugly development with a view to brining anyone found
culpable to book.
She noted that her vision is to re-engineer the Agency to
take it to its proper place as a specialised crime fighting agency that is
foremost in the suppression and elimination of trafficking in persons with
specific focus on awareness creation, advocacy, law enforcement, capacity
development and comprehensive rehabilitation of trafficked victims.
Okah-Donli said as part of that vision, officers of the
Agency have already commenced a weekly sensitisation campaign by moving into
streets and at various public places around the country to educate members of
the public on the ills of human trafficking.
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