The Zonal Coordinator, National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), Nduka Nwanwenne, has said the agency has secured 500 convictions of human traffickers since its establishment by the Federal Government.
Nwanwenne said despite the fact that Nigeria during the establishment of NAPTIP was at a low ebb in organised crimes, the agency started with one conviction in 2004 and has had over 500 convictions to date.
Nwanwenne, who made this known during a call on the Chairman of the State Gender Response Initiative Team, Barrister Dise Ogbise in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, stressed that the issue of trafficking in persons for any purpose was not an isolated problem to Bayelsa or Nigeria.
He said it was a global problem and therefore there was the need for collaboration with different stakeholders such as GRIT, security agencies, traditional and religious leaders.
Nwanwenne, who is in charge of Bayelsa, Delta, and Edo states, was accompanied on the visit by Bayelsa State Commander, Mrs. Abieyuwa Ehidenro, Head of Operations, Daniel Ibe, and the PRO Wariebi Sambo.
She pointed out that building collaboration was enshrined in the law that established the agency.
She said Nigeria in 2003 signed the transnational organised crime protocols, stressing the importance of NAPTIP as an agency of the Federal Government response to addressing the scourge of trafficking in persons.