Human Trafficking: Immigration rescues 8 children in Ekiti

Operatives of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Ekiti State Command, have rescued eight children being trafficked from Benue State to end-users in Lagos and Oyo states enroute Ekiti State.

The NIS Comptroller, Ekiti State Command, Mr Alphonsus Achilonu, said that a suspect was also arrested for alleged involvement in the trafficking of the children for child labour.

Achilonu, who spoke in Ado Ekiti during a weeklong customer service ceremony, said, “NIS Anti-Human Trafficking squad, acting on a tip-off and through intelligence gathering, arrested one man while trafficking the eight children, who are minors, to their end users in Lagos and Ibadan.

He confessed that he brought the children from Benue State.

“The eight victims had been reunited with their families. Many people are in the business. They have to be checked at all cost and the best approach is for the government, parents and all well-meaning Nigerians to ensure that they are sincere with the provision of basic needs for these children, put them in schools, create enabling environment, and provide jobs for them.

“We should not pay lip service to it. Government should come up with stringent laws and policies to curtail traffickers. Some of them are fond of using commercial drivers as delivering agents of these innocent children to their end users.

“What we do to whoever we arrest is to investigate properly, gather evidence, and handover the person to National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons office in Osogbo, Osun State for diligent prosecution,” he said.

While shedding light on the responsibility of the service, the comptroller said, “The NIS has a lot of responsibilities which our people are not aware of. Apart from issuance of passports, we patrol borders and we also have a rapid response squad to back up police, Department of State Service and other security agencies while performing very sensitive operations.

“Our operatives, in conjunction with Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and correctional centre officers, are now working together to curtail jailbreak based on the directive of the Minister of Interior. We also have an anti-corruption unit that fights extortion of the members of  public, because we don’t condone indiscipline,” he said.

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