The Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, Julie Okah-Donli has urged the leadership of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA to investigate doctors involved in the harvesting of vital human organs of trafficked persons for sale.
The DG who raised the alarm yesterday at a news conference in Abuja said many people have fallen victim to the criminal gangs due to ignorance and carelessness while their relatives are oblivious of their present state.
“Many Nigerians, due to ignorance, daily facilitate the continuous proliferation of the crime of human trafficking and the crime has gone beyond trafficking for prostitution and servitude, having extended to the scary and dangerous dimension of organ harvesting. This is a crime that has far reaching socio-economic effects on Nigeria’’, she stated.
She explained that human traffickers now murder their victims on daily basis in the process of extracting their vital organs and body parts for sale. This, according to her, gives the trafficking gangs better and quick profits than sexual and labour exploitation which profit takes longer time to mature.
She said that as a result of this new dimension, no one is safe anymore and nobody knows who the next victim might be as the traffickers have become more vicious in their activities and also have lots of money at their disposal to perpetrate their criminal activities.
She however, added that following the recent repatriation of Nigerians especially from Libya, and the frequency of cases reported to the Agency, more information and intelligence are being gathered on the activities of human traffickers involved in the trafficking of Nigerians.
Okah-Donli, therefore, called for concerted efforts by all State and non State actors in Nigeria to stop the criminal gangs from operating in Nigeria.
She explained that NAPTIP has raised the consciousness of its operatives in this area.
She said that the dwindling fortunes on the nation’s economy was affecting the work of the Agency hence, the need for the private sector to lend support for the fight which if allowed to continue will have very dangerous effects on the future of the country. ‘’This problem has been left for too long in the hands of the federal government alone. Let public spirited individuals and corporations join hands with us for greater success’’, she added.
The Director General also disclosed that the Agency has commenced a massive sensitization campaign to increase the level of awareness and start up a discourse which would bring to the public consciousness, the need to reduce to its barest minimum, the inhumane act of human trafficking.
The NAPTIP Director General also called on the media to give more prominence to the issue of human trafficking in order to help change the present narrative.
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