By Favour Ulebor
Operatives of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) have raided a popular hotel in Zamaru, near Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, and rescued seven victims suspected of being trafficked to Iraq for exploitation.
The agency also arrested the hotel manager during the operation, which followed credible intelligence from concerned stakeholders who noticed unusual movements of young girls and strange men in the facility.
In a press statement on Sunday, NAPTIP’s Press Officer, Vincent Adekoye, said the operation was part of intensified efforts to crack down on human trafficking networks using Abuja’s airport as a transit point.
He recalled that in the past few months, NAPTIP had intercepted no fewer than 60 suspected victims of human trafficking at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, who were being taken to volatile and war-torn countries in the Middle East.
A detailed profiling of the rescued victims revealed that six of them were recruited from Lagos, while one was from Delta State.
The victims were deceived with false promises of caregiving jobs in Baghdad, only to later realise they were being trafficked to Iraq.
The statement in parts, “This hotel has been identified as a gathering point for trafficked victims before they are moved to their final destinations. We will not tolerate such activities and will ensure that all those involved face the full wrath of the law.” He said.
Tearfully Recounting her experience, one of the victims said, “They told me I would work as a house help in Baghdad and earn a good salary every month. I believed them because I thought Baghdad was in another country. They never told me I was going to Iraq”.
Speaking on the development, Director-General of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, OON, expressed concern over the role of some service providers in aiding human trafficking and warned that the agency would invoke relevant laws to prosecute offenders.
Represented by the Director of Research and Programme Development, Mr. Josiah Emerole, She noted that NAPTIP would no longer tolerate the actions of individuals and businesses that enable trafficking, adding that harboring victims of human trafficking is a criminal offense under Nigeria’s anti-trafficking laws.
Bello also revealed that victims are often kept in the hotel before being smuggled out of the country, where they are briefed on how to evade arrest by disguising themselves and providing misleading information to law enforcement officers at the airport.
She said, “It is disheartening that some service providers in the country facilitate human trafficking by offering their facilities for recruitment, transportation, and harboring of victims.
“The hotel is believed to be a muster point for victims of human trafficking to some notorious destination countries. The manager of the hotel is being interrogated, and we have intensified the manhunt for other members of the trafficking gang working in collaboration with criminal elements in Iraq.
“Due to the unpatriotic roles of some of these service providers, the agency shall henceforth invoke the appropriate sections of its law to prosecute them. This is because harboring suspected victims of human trafficking is also an offense in the trafficking law,” she stated.
NAPTIP said efforts are ongoing to track and arrest other members of the trafficking network, including their collaborators in Iraq.
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