By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
About 2,743 trafficked victims have been rescued by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), its Director-General, Fatima Waziri-Azi, has disclosed.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, she explained that 1,440 reported cases of trafficking in persons were received by NAPTIP, saying that 412 external trafficking cases (28.6%) and 1,028 internal trafficking cases (71.4%).
She further explained that 2,743 victims were rescued in collaboration with other sister law enforcement agencies with male children, 233 (8.5%); female children, 688 (25.1%); male adults, 363 (13.2%); and female adults, 1,459 (53.2%).
According to her, “Victims of inward trafficking were 45, that is; victims trafficked into Nigeria; returned victims from abroad were 251; and intercepted victims were 1,484, that is; those who were on their way out of Nigeria.”
The Director-General said that most of the victims were trafficked by road through their borders all across the country.
She said that the agency also secured 80 convictions in 2022: 45 males and 35 females, stressing that the agency’s counter-trafficking project, launched in collaboration with the Canadian Government, was to address human trafficking gradually.
