A 25-year-old woman, Rukaya Hassan, has been arrested by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Ilela border command, Sokoto State, during an attempt to traffic two minors, Nabila Ibrahim, 17, and her sister Zainab Ibrahim, 15, across the border to Niger Republic.
The Command Public Relations Officer (CPRO), Mohammed Abdullahi, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.
Abdullahi explained that the victims had been handed over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigation.
He said that the operation was a swift response to the morale-boosting charge of the new Comptroller-General of Immigration (CGI), Mrs Kemi Nandap.
According to him, during interrogation, a resident of Giribshi area in Sokoto, Hassan, confessed that she did not know the two young girls she was traveling with to Niger.
“She claimed they were handed over to her by a woman in Sokoto named Maman Adnan, who paid for their transport to Niger.
“She also claimed the woman requested her help to take the two girls to another woman in Niger named Amina Yunusa, who would provide them jobs in her restaurant in Niamey,” he said.
Abdullahi added that during further examination, the two teenagers, Nabila Ibrahim, 17 years old, and her sister Zainab Ibrahim, 15 years old, disclosed that they hailed from Zuru LGA in Kebbi State.
“They explained they were going to Niger to resume work at a certain restaurant whose owner they did not know, but their parents had approved of the trip.”
Reacting, the Comptroller of Immigration, Ilela Command, Tony Akuneme, who conducted the interviews, invited NAPTIP Sokoto State to take charge of the two victims and the suspected trafficker.
Akuneme reiterated his commitment to sustaining the campaign against Smuggling of Migrants (SOM) and Trafficking in Persons (TIPs), to support the efforts of the CGI.
