NAPTIP says Nigerians must understand the antics of human traffickers to fight crime

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has warned that many Nigerians fall victim to human trafficking because they do not understand the antics of traffickers and the nature of the crime.

Speaking at the 2024 World Day Against Human Trafficking, marked in Abuja over the weekend with a unique football match between female officers of NAPTIP and the agency’s female partners, the anti-human trafficking organisation’s Director General, Professor Fatima Waziri-Azi, said awareness should not be limited to the elderly, but also children, to educate them on the different strategies and antics of human traffickers.

Waziri-Azi, who used the occasion of the 2024 World Day Against Human Trafficking to raise awareness, said the aim was to leave no child behind in the fight against human trafficking.

He stressed that the purpose of the football match was to create entertainment and at the same time to use the same medium to sensitize people and create the necessary awareness about the problems of human trafficking.

She said: “We know that we talk about human trafficking a lot, because children are proportionally affected as well. So it’s just for us to remind the public, to remind the world that the victims of human trafficking, and those who traffic our people, should learn to show them compassion. We should also show solidarity in addition to raising awareness.”

He said that NAPTIP remained the lead anti-human trafficking agency in Nigeria and that in carrying out its work, a five-pronged strategic approach was developed: prevention, protection, prosecution, partnership and policy.

The Director of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, ICMPD,
Mojisola Sodeinde, for her part, said: “It’s a very important game. It’s not so much who won or who lost. We all won because we are gathered here to organize an event in support of the anti-trafficking efforts that the narrative has been promoting for decades.

“ICMPD, as a partner not only in Nigeria, but across the West Africa region with NAPTIP, has demonstrated in its efforts today and in those of our partnership and in the effort that we all put into the fight against trafficking.

“This year for ICMPD we have started a project with NAPTIP in five states: Benue, Edo, Ogun, Delta and Enugu, where we are working with school authorities and communities to continue the advocacy work of NAPTIP and also of ICMPD.

“Every year, we always try to improve on what we did the previous year. So this year is better than last year because obviously, we’re doing more, we’re doing it better. We have a lot of experience doing it now.

“What’s unfortunate is that the traffickers are also on their side, coming up with new ways to improve their trade. And we always have to keep up with them to know the new approaches, the new tactics that they’re implementing, as partners.”

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