NAPTIP begs for improved funding from govt, corporate bodies

DIRECTOR-GENERAL, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Ms. Julie Okah-Donli, has called for more funding from government, private and corporate organisations, saying that the scope of its operations had broadened hence the need for adequate funding to achieve its mandate.

The NAPTIP boss made the call on Tuesday in Lagos when she paid a courtesy visit on the Executive Secretary, Nigeria National Summit Group (NNSG), Mr Tony Uranta, urging him to use his influence locally and internationally to rally support for the Agency especially with a view to helping it with food, drugs and other basic necessities for its shelter homes.

Okah-Donli, while making the call, said trafficking in person had gone beyond sexual exploitation and domestic servitude.

According to her, it has now extended to organ harvesting, lamenting, “These days, they kill people and sell their organs.”

“They believe it is easier for them to get money that way than to start waiting for a prostitute to bring returns. So, it has taken a frightening and scary dimension,” the NAPTIP boss said.

Okah-Donli, while identifying funding as a major challenge for the agency, contended that the burden should not be left to the government alone.

Speaking further, Okah-Donli disclosed that NAPTIP had convicted no fewer than 325 persons, saying that many cases were still pending in courts as investigation on many others were still on-going.

This was just as she stated that over 12,000 victims were recorded to have passed through NAPTIP shelters.

“In 2017, we have witnessed the mass deportation of Nigerians from various countries specially Libya. This is further draining our very lean budget. The private sector has not joined in the fight and we call on them to come on board.

“When we talk about human trafficking, many people are looking at external trafficking and they just situate it around ladies going to Italy, but they don’t seem to realise that there is so much internal trafficking going on in Nigeria especially in Lagos State because it is a transit and destination state. When you don’t pay your housemaid or you hit her, its trafficking,” she stated.

In his response, Uranta, who was a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue during the past administration of Dr Goodluck Jonathan, commended the leadership of the Agency, stating that there was need for NAPTIP to improve its advocacy.

Uranta, who recalled that he had been concerned about the issue and threat for over 10 years, called on government and the National Assembly to increase the budgetary allocation of the Agency, promising to mobilise major actors and stakeholders in the nation and the corporate world to commit to easing the burden of human trafficking in the country.