No fewer than 1,200 victims of human trafficking have been rescued and 10 suspected human traffickers have been arrested and convicted by the Katsina State Command of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
According to the State Commander of NAPTIP, Musa Aliyu, the victims comprising men, women, and their children were rescued between last year and now.
He stated that with the commitment of the Katsina State Government, the State NAPTIP liaison office has been upgraded to a Command.
He further called on the good people of the state not to hesitate to directly report issues relating to human trafficking, child abuse, child labour, and other related abuses to the office of the command.
Malam Aliyu was speaking on Saturday during a medical outreach/victims’ assistance program for the victims of human trafficking under the framework of the Niger-Nigeria Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Project held at the Umaru Musa Yar’adua Way, New Modoji GRA, Katsina State.
The program put together by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) with support from the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) covered at least eighty (80) victims of human trafficking in Katsina State.
Beneficiaries of the program mostly women and their children were enlightened and attended to by a team of medical doctors deployed from across various hospitals in the state.
Three of the doctors deployed for the exercise namely; Dr. Ammar Ibrahim, Dr. Aliyu Umar and Dr. Aminu Hamisu Rimaye of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Katsina, Katsina Eye Center, and General Amadi Rimi Specialist Hospital respectively asked the victims to feel free in disclosing their various health problems.
Earlier in her goodwill message, the Director General of the NAPTIP, Professor Fatima Waziri, stressed that the agency has been at the forefront of not only protecting victims of human trafficking but also assisting them to become better citizens of the country.
Professor Waziri represented by the NAPTIP Director Counseling and Rehabilitation, Abuja, Mr. Angela Agbayekhai, described the medical outreach/victims’ assistance program as just one out of many that the agency in collaboration with ICMPD has been carrying out.
“The issue of counselling in NAPTIP is very key because when the victims are rescued without being given proper counselling and rehabilitation, they will be lost because they go back to the society same as they have come back: they were traumatized, losing hope and confidence, and with mental issues.
