NAPTIP rescues 779 victims in four years
• Tuesday, Jul 10, 2007

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) rescued 779 victims in the last four years, a top official said.

The Director for Investigation and Monitoring, Alhaji Mohammad Babandede, made the disclosure to our correspondent in Abuja yesterday.

He explained that trafficking in persons entailed the exploitation and deceitful movement of persons from place to place, either for labour, sex or the removal of human organs.

Babandede said that out of the persons rescued in joint operations with the police, immigration and other agencies, 337 had been trained in various vocations and re-integrated into the society.

He further said that no fewer than 24 victims were repatriated to Spain, Italy, Saudi Arabia, while more than 200 were sent back to Benin Republic, Togo and Burkina Faso.

Most of the rescued victims were given hairdressing equipment, sewing machines and other tools on completion of their vocational training to facilitate their rehabilitation, he said.

The director noted that the affected persons belonged to the age bracket of 13-22 years, with the ratio standing at two males to eight females.

He said that Edo and Delta had the highest number of street girls or 90 per cent of women trafficked abroad.

“Others are trafficked from some Northern states such as Kano and Sokoto, and used as beggars in Saudi Arabia,” he added.

Babandede quoted a survey conducted by an NGO called TAMPEP as showing that 60 per cent of street girls in Italy were Nigerians.

He further said that around 13,000 of such girls were stranded in Libya.

The director listed Italy, Spain, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Ireland and the Netherlands as the major receiving countries, while Benin, Togo, Niger and Chad were the trafficking nations to Nigeria.

Cameroon, Benin, Gabon and Niger, he said, were transit points for most of the trafficked persons.

Babandede said that more than 10,000 trafficking cases had been reported to the agency, while 12 barons, most of them women, had been convicted. NAPTIP lost two cases, while around 20 cases were awaiting trial, he said.

The director expressed regret that radio and television jingles had not been effective in the fight against trafficking as most of the victims were illiterates.

Dude your title is kind of misleading yeah Edo and Delta State are in the Delta region but so is Bayelsa,  Rivers States, Abia State, Akwa Ibom State, Cross River State,Imo State, Ondo State, you didnt have to put ND on blast like that, i'm just saying the region has had a rough week already. 

Any way sha its a bloody shame that people can do this can of thing to their fellow human beings, just for profit.  Hopefully these young adults can rebuild their lives and are able to move on to be great human beings, only God knows how much trauma they have truly experience.