Immigration rescues eight trafficked children in Ekiti

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has rescued eight trafficked children in Ekiti State.

The NIS Comptroller in the state, Alphonsus Achilonu, who disclosed this to journalists on Thursday in Ado-Ekiti, said the children were being trafficked from Benue State to end-users in Lagos and Oyo States.

He added that a suspect was arrested by the agency.

Achilonu said: “NIS Anti-Human Trafficking squad, acting on a tip-off and through intelligence gathering, arrested one man while trafficking the eight children, who are minors, to their end users in Lagos and Ibadan.

“The eight victims had been reunited with their families. Many people are in the business. They have to be checked at all cost and the best approach is for the government, parents and all well-meaning Nigerians to ensure that they are sincere with the provision of basic needs for these children, put them in schools, create enabling environment, and provide jobs for them.

“We should not pay lip service to it. Government should come up with stringent laws and policies to curtail traffickers. Some of them are fond of using commercial drivers as delivering agents of these innocent children to their end users.

READ ALSO: Immigration rescues nine trafficked persons in Jigawa

“What we do to whoever we arrest is to investigate properly, gather evidence, and handover the person to National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons office in Osogbo, Osun State for diligent prosecution.

“The NIS has a lot of responsibilities which our people are not aware of. Apart from issuance of passports, we patrol borders and we also have a rapid response squad to back up police, Department of State Service and other security agencies while performing very sensitive operations. “

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