World Cup: NAPTIP raises the alarm on plot to traffic Nigerian youths abroad
The Director General of National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Julie Okah – Donli, has said that there are plans by human traffickers to use the World Cup as a ploy to traffic Nigerian youths abroad.
Okah-Donli stated this during a press conference in Abuja on Monday.
She said, “Already these traffickers have continued to mount pressure on some youths and their parents forcing them to part with huge sums of money in exchange for Russian visa.”
The NAPTIP boss added that part of the plot was to float unregistered football supporters club, unofficial government delegation, as well as unregistered youth bodies.
According to her, traffickers, plan to use these platforms to collect huge sums of money from some desperate youth, with the promise to ferry them out of Nigeria using the World Cup tournament as a ploy.
She further explained that the traffickers, in collusion with their collaborators at the destination countries, have also arranged with their cohorts in Europe to facilitate the defection of the victims out of Moscow.
She said, “One of such cases at hand is that of a girl from one of the states in the South-South part of the country. She reported that a Moscow-based trafficker has continued to pressure her through her parents in order to traffic her. The trafficker has concluded plans to airlift her on or before June 5, 2018.”
Okah-Donli said the agency’s detectives were already on the trail of the said parents, while the sister operatives in Moscow were handling the traffickers.
She therefore warned parents to beware of persons coming to them to give out their children to be taken abroad within this period.
She added that yielding to undue pressure and deceit would send such children to their early grave.
She said, “Russia is a country with high incidence of human trafficking and many Nigerian victims of human trafficking are held up there, and now seeking assistance to return home.
“Stories from victims of human trafficking rescued by NAPTIP from Russia in the past are full of pains and agonies, with few of such victims permanently incapacitated for the rest of their lives.”
She, however, assured that her agency was making effort to meet with the minister of sports and Russian ambassador to Nigeria on the development.
The NAPTIP boss therefore called on the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to ensure that only accredited delegates and officials made the Russian contingent.
