The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) stated that its operatives have rescued 19 girls suspected to have been impregnated by a man in Abuja.
Binta Bello, NAPTIP director-general, spoke on Friday at a meeting with Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
Bello thanked Dabiri-Erewa for NiDCOM’s support, especially in the recent rescue of 231 young Nigerians from Ghana.
She said tackling human trafficking requires joint action from government and key stakeholders, stressing the need for more awareness across all levels.
“We rescued last week 19 girls, all pregnant for one man, in an estate in Abuja; received nine girls from Cote D’Ivoire; and other sordid stories to mention here,” she said.
She commended the commission’s role in engaging with Nigerians in the diaspora and expressed her commitment to strengthening the NiDCOM-NAPTIP relationship.
Bello assured that the agency would continue to protect the rights and dignity of Nigerians against trafficking in persons.
Dabiri-Erewa called for a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach against human trafficking in Nigeria.
While noting that progress has been made, she said more needs to be done, adding that traffickers should be named and shamed as a deterrent to other criminal actors.
She said NAPTIP cannot work alone and called for closer collaboration with NiDCOM, the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), and other sister agencies.
“We will continue to do our best to save these young ones and encourage safe and regular pathways for migration,” she said.
