The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has warned Nigerians to be careful while consulting with travel agents as some of them may belong to organ harvesting syndicates. 

The Director-General, NAPTIP, Fatima Waziri-Azi, disclosed this at a workshop organised for media practitioners in Lagos on Thursday.

“Travelers and their families should also avoid the desperation to make wealth which makes them contract travelling consultants, as some of them may belong to organ harvesting syndicates,” Mrs Waziri-Azi stressed.

The NAPTIP boss expressed regret that financial greed had blinded many parents to the extent that they compromised their wards to these organ harvesting syndicates.

Speaking further, the NAPTIP DG also disclosed that the agency secured the convictions of 42 human traffickers in the first half of 2023.

She said that the convictions were secured from traffickers who were diligently prosecuted from January to June 14, 2023.

Mrs Waziri-Azi was represented by Arinze Orakwe, the director in-charge of Training and Manpower Development, NAPTIP.

“Therefore, NAPTIP is sending a strong warning to human trafficking criminals that the agency will never retreat or surrender.

“The human trafficking industry yields as high as $150 billion annually and globally from harvesting human skin, liver, pancreas, kidney among others.

“I want to plead with the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the Muslim Society of Nigeria (MSM) and other religions bodies in the country to join hands with NAPTIP to wage war against these criminals,” said Mrs Waziri-Azi. 

The NAPTIP director-general noted that the syndicates were attracted to huge financial earnings, and they kept evolving new tactics to capture their victims.

She assured Nigerians that NAPTIP was up to the task of defeating the syndicates, no matter how deceptive they became.

Mrs Waziri-Azi appealed to Nigerians to expose individuals and syndicates that harvested human organs for sales.

She urged Nigerians, who wanted to travel out of the country, to always follow safe migration pathways.

“Travelers should get all necessary information on the destination country and procure right travelling documents, among others.”

The workshop was for core members of the Trafficking-in-Persons Media Corps.

It was organised by NAPTIP, supported by the Action Against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants  (A-TIPSOM) and funded by the European Union (EU).

(NAN)