The National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), Sokoto State command has reunited 22 victims of human trafficking recently rescued from the Niger Republic with their families.
The Zonal Commander of the agency in the state, Barrister Abubakar Bashiru, disclosed this while addressing newsmen in his office, on Thursday.
Bashiru while addressing the newsmen disclosed that the agency having counselled the victims, contacted their families on how they will be reunited.
He said their parents in return contacted their various community leaders in Sokoto on how they can help them to receive their children.
He said the rescued children are from Lagos, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Imo, Delta and the Edo States respectively.
It will be recalled that NAPTIP, on Tuesday, in a press conference revealed that the agency through the collaboration of the Nigerian Immigration Service and their counterpart in the Niger Republic rescued about 23 victims of human trafficking.
The victims who are mainly from the Southern part of the country were cajoled by their agents, currently at large to travel to Tripoli in Libya through Sokoto – Niger Republic.
Speaking on behalf of the parents, the President General of the Yoruba community, Chief James Olorunfemi, expressed sadness over the development.
He disclosed that the Yoruba community in Sokoto had contacted parents of the children and expressed their development on the situation of things.
He said arrangements are being made to send delegates to the state with the highest number of victims to counsel their parents and prosecute others if need be.
Olorunfemi appealed to the traditional and religious leaders in the South West to come together and address the menace of trafficking which he described as alien to Yoruba culture.
“As a Yoruba leader, I am so sad about this, that our children are involved in trafficking where syndicate are selling them which is not part of our culture.
“We contacted some of the parents and spoke to them in the language some of them never expected.
“What they did was against the law of the country, sending those children, most of them are less than twenty years of age on a journey to another man’s land instead of trying to prepare them for their future,” he added.
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