The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has intercepted and rescued 25 women who were on the verge of being trafficked out of Nigeria.
According to a statement by NAPTIP spokesperson, Vincent Adekoye, the victims were being lured with promises of lucrative jobs abroad but were instead headed for labour exploitation in Saudi Arabia.
The rescue operation took place in Abuja after operatives of the agency acted on intelligence and apprehended the group in front of a popular hotel in Wuse II, where they had been instructed to assemble by their trafficker.
During interrogation, the victims, whose ages range from 17 to 43 years, claimed that they were recruited from Kano, Jigawa, and Katsina States by some persons with a promise to travel to Saudi Arabia to take up a job as a domestic worker, specifically house help.
“Some people came to our village and told my parent that they would assist me to travel abroad to work as a house help in Saudi Arabia. They assured us that the job there will pay us very well, and we will be able to come and take care of our parents and families.
“They asked us to come and wait for them here so that they will give us the travel document and the necessary instructions on how to go. They have not given us any documents, like an International Passport and a visa, and we are worried that neither of them is here to attend to us as they promised,” one of the victims reportedly stated.
A good number of the victims reportedly confessed that they were in Abuja for the first time, and they are stranded.
The Director General of NAPTIP, Binta Bello, who frowned upon the activities of the traffickers, warned that some trafficking gangs now use Abuja as a centralided coordination point for trafficking.
She said, “The sad aspect of the whole thing is that they (unsuspecting victims) excitedly jumped at the offer from the traffickers without knowing the harrowing experience and the level of exploitation that awaited them in the destination country.
“Let me use this medium to call on the umbrella body of the Travel Agency, the Association of Recruiters, Licensed Placement Agency of Nigeria, and other regulatory bodies, to rise to their responsibility of regulating the activities of their members.”