Operatives of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) have raided a popular hotel located at Zamaru, a few kilometers away from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, and rescued seven suspected victims who were being prepared to be trafficked to Baghdad, Iraq, for exploitation.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Press Officer, NAPTIP, Vincent Adekoye, said the raid, which also led to the arrest of the manager of the hotel, followed credible intelligence from concerned stakeholders who noticed the unusual movement of some young girls and strange-looking men within the hotel, thereby indicating that the facilities were being used to harbour victims of human trafficking.
Adekoye also recalled that NAPTIP had, in the last few months, intercepted no fewer than 60 suspected victims of human trafficking at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on their way to some of the volatile and war-torn countries in the Middle East.
He said a critical profiling of the rescued victims indicated that six of them were deceived and recruited from Lagos, while one was from Delta State.
He said the victims were deceived with a promise of a caregiving job in Iraq, where they would be signed off into slavery by two sets of recruiters whose identities were not known to them.
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Speaking on the development, the Director General of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, expressed displeasure over the roles of some unscrupulous service providers in the recruitment and trafficking of Nigerians for various forms of exploitation and warned that, henceforth, the agency shall invoke the relevant provisions of its law to prosecute erring entities.
Represented by the Director of Research and Programme Development, Mr. Josiah Emerole, the Director General said, “It is sad the way some of the service providers in the country aid and abet the recruitment, transportation, transfer, and harbouring of Nigerians who are victims of human trafficking.
“The hotel is believed to be a muster point for victims of human trafficking to some of the notorious destination countries. The manager of the hotel is being quizzed, and we have also intensified the manhunt for other members of the trafficking gang working in collaboration with other criminal elements in Iraq.
“The suspected victims are trafficked from different parts of the country and harboured in the hotel. They are further briefed on how to evade arrest at any point by disguising themselves in various forms and answering questions from law enforcement officers at the airport.”
