NIGERIA. Katsina State: About 615 victims of human trafficking have been rescued by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person (NAPTIP) in Katsina state, the Northern part of Nigeria since January this year.
NAPTIP Commander in the state, Musa Aliyu, disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Katsina on Saturday to mark the World Anti-Human Trafficking Day.
Aliyu said NAPTIP received the victims in collaboration with stakeholders from the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the Police operating in the state.
He urged Nigerian youths not to be fooled by greener pastures in foreign countries, noting that the theme of this year’s celebration is “Use and Abuse of Technology”.
The theme of this year’s celebration is centred on the use of technology as an instrument that enables the act of human trafficking, Aliyu said.
The State Coordinator of Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse, and Labor (NACTAL), Shola Babadiya, said, “In recent times, technology and cyber has been a tool used by the perpetrators of the act to carry out their evil and devilish act of human trafficking without been identified.”
Babadiya further stated that the traffickers also used to mobilize and lure innocent victims into the act. He, therefore, urged Nigerians to always be on alert and work with NAPTIP to tackle and end the problem of trafficking of persons in the country.
In her part, the state Commissioner for Women Affairs, Hajiya Rabi’ah Muhammed, also advised the media to come in to help in curbing the menace through various forms of media campaigns on anti-human trafficking awareness in the state.
“Especially among the general public on the ills of human trafficking amid the tactics employed by traffickers in luring their victims into their nets,” she said.
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