The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has rescued seven girls who were victims of a human trafficking gang at a hotel in Abuja.

In a statement on Sunday, NAPTIP’s chief press officer, Vincent Adekoye, disclosed that the hotel was raided following a tip-off from concerned individuals in the area.

This led to the rescue of the seven girls, who were bound for Baghdad, Iraq, and the arrest of the hotel manager, who is currently being interrogated for harboring the victims.

“The girls were being prepared to be trafficked to Baghdad, Iraq, for exploitation,” Mr Adekoye noted.

He added that the victims were allegedly lured with the promise of “well-paying caregiving jobs in Iraq but later discovered they were being trafficked.”

A preliminary profiling of the rescued girls revealed that six of them were recruited from Lagos, while one hails from Delta state.

“They told me that I will do a househelp job in Baghdad and I will receive a good salary every month.

“I believed them because I thought Baghdad was in another country. They didn’t tell me I will work in Iraq,” Mr Adekoye recounted, quoting one of the victims.

The latest rescue by NAPTIP adds to a growing number of interceptions by the agency, which has prevented over 60 suspected victims from being trafficked through the Abuja airport in recent months to war-torn countries in the Middle East.

NAPTIP’s director-general, Binta Bello, represented by the director of research and programme development, Josiah Emerole, condemned the role of service providers in aiding human trafficking.

“It is sad the way some service providers aid and abet the recruitment, transportation, transfer, and harboring of Nigerians who are victims of human trafficking.

“The suspected victims are trafficked from different parts of the country and harboured in the hotel,” she said.

She added, “The victims were briefed on how to evade arrest at the airport,” while noting that harboring victims of trafficking is also an offense punishable by law.

Ms Bello warned that the agency would now invoke the full weight of the law to prosecute individuals or entities who are accomplices in trafficking activities.

She said the agency has intensified its manhunt for other members of the trafficking gang, who are believed to be operating in collaboration with criminal syndicates in Iraq.

“The manager of the hotel is being quizzed, and we have also intensified the manhunt for other members of the trafficking gang working in collaboration with other criminal elements in Iraq,” the DG said.