Operatives of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) have rescued seven victims suspected of being trafficked, from a popular hotel near the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
NAPTIP’s Press Officer, Vincent Adekoye, in a statement on Sunday, said the agency also arrested the hotel manager during the operation, which followed credible intelligence from concerned stakeholders who noticed unusual movements of young girls and strange men in the facility.
He said that the operation was part of intensified efforts to crack down on human trafficking networks using Abuja’s airport as a transit point, adding that the victims were suspected of being trafficked to Iraq for exploitation.
He recalled that the agency had in the last few months, intercepted no fewer than 60 suspected victims of human trafficking at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, who were being taken to volatile and war-torn countries in the Middle East.
A detailed profiling of the rescued victims revealed that six of them were recruited from Lagos, while one was from Delta State. They were deceived with false promises of caregiving jobs in Baghdad, only to later realise they were being trafficked to Iraq.
“This hotel has been identified as a gathering point for trafficked victims before they are moved to their final destinations. We will not tolerate such activities and will ensure that all those involved face the full wrath of the law”, Adekoye stated.
One of the victims tearfully recounted how she was told that she would work as a house help in Baghdad and earn a good salary every month. “I believed them because I thought Baghdad was in another country. They never told me I was going to Iraq”, she said
Speaking on the development, Director-General of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, OON, expressed concern over the role of some service providers in aiding human trafficking and warned that the agency would invoke relevant laws to prosecute offenders.
Bello, who was represented by the Director of Research and Programme Development, Mr. Josiah Emerole, noted that NAPTIP would no longer tolerate the actions of individuals and businesses that enable trafficking, adding that harboring victims of human trafficking is a criminal offense under Nigeria’s anti-trafficking laws.
She also revealed that victims are often kept in the hotel before being smuggled out of the country, where they are briefed on how to evade arrest by disguising themselves and providing misleading information to law enforcement officers at the airport.
“It is disheartening that some service providers in the country facilitate human trafficking by offering their facilities for recruitment, transportation, and harboring of victims”, she said, adding that the agency has intensified the manhunt for other members of the trafficking gang working in collaboration with criminal elements in Iraq.
Sha also said that due to the unpatriotic roles of some of these service providers, the agency shall henceforth invoke the appropriate sections of its law to prosecute them, “because harboring suspected victims of human trafficking is also an offense in the trafficking law”.
