The Nigerian Navy Logistics College, Dawakin Tofa has rescued and handed over 18 girls trafficked from the southern part of the country to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
The commandant of the college, Commodore Usman Mainasara Bugaje, made this known while handing over the girls and two arrested suspects at the college on Monday.
He said that the college internal security team was on the 4th February, 2023 given intelligence information, embarked on a rescue mission and apprehended the victims.
“The college received credible intelligence on suspected human traffickers around Rijiyar Lemo area of Dala LGA of Kano State.
“Eighteen female victims were rescued while two suspects were arrested. Others in the process escaped while search for them is ongoing in conjunction with NAPTIP and other security agencies to apprehend the ones that escaped.
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“Half of the victims are teenagers with the youngest aged 16 and the oldest of them 28 years of age and average of them 21 to 22 years and are mostly from the southern part of the country precisely from Owerri, Porthercourt, Asaba, Benin, Lagos, Akure and Ado-Ekiti,” he said.
He added that most of the victims are artisans skilled in tailoring, hairdressing, among others either being unemployed or low paying jobs such as factory workers and POS operators earning 15,000 to N20,000 on monthly basis.
While they are all aware of where they are being taken to, a few of them said, they were not told by their sponsors attesting to Kano being a point of procession to Libya and other countries.
On his part, the Zonal commander, NAPTIP, Barrister Abdullahi Babale, thanked the college on behalf of his agency for the rescue operation adding that further investigation into the case in synergy with other security outfits.
“In line with our mandate, we are going to carry out a thorough investigation to unravel the other actors for this heinous act, arrest them for possible prosecution before the court of law,” he said.
