The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu has said the commission would begin to go after human traffickers.
Magu said this when a delegation from the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) visited him in Abuja.
Spokesman of the commission, Wilson Uwujaren, who reported the visit in a statement, said the NAPTIP delegation was led by its Director-General, Dame Julie Okah-Donli.
Highlights: Magu said the anti-graft agency had jurisdiction over human trafficking, which he said, was an offshoot of corruption.
“We are prepared to go after human traffickers because we strongly believe that it is an aspect of corruption, and corruption is the greatest enemy of Nigeria.
“Corruption is the reason why young Nigerians are risking their lives walking through the Mediterranean up to Spain and other European countries in search of greener pasture,” he said.
While calling for NAPTIP’s partnership in the fight against corruption, Magu assured Okah-Donli of the EFCC’s support in combating the increasing cases of “organ harvesting” involving Nigerians.
“NAPTIP is also a stakeholder in the fight (against corruption), so we also need your assistance and collaboration,” he said.
Okah-Donli said the agency has busted a number of criminal activities, recorded 331 convictions since 2004, with various other ongoing cases at advanced stages in courts.
She added that NAPTIP had rescued many trafficked youth who were being rehabilitated and given a new lease of life. Okah-Donli said: “organ trafficking, which is now becoming a big business, is another form of human trafficking”.
The DG requested for assistance of the EFCC in confiscating assets of traffickers, and also in the area of training and developing its own academy.
Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram
Leave a reply