61 percent of human trafficking in Nigeria occurs internally--- says NAPTIP DG

By: Idris Umar Momoh


The Director–General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons (NAPTIP), Dr Fatima Waziri-Azi, says statistics analysis of the agency from 2019- 2022 showed that 61 percent of human trafficking cases in the country occurred internally.

Waziri-Azi, who made the disclosure on Monday at the  second batch of boot camp peer review for member of states taskforces to fight human trafficking, said 39 percent of the trafficking was across the country's borders.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), he said the five-day North/South boot camp was organised to deepen engagement of members of states taskforce in fighting human traffickers.

The NAPTIP director-general  represented by Mr Olubiyi Olusayo, Director of Intelligence, Research and Programme Development NAPTIP, said the second phase of the boot camp was organised for 12 states.

While appreciating expertise France, International Organisation Migration (IOM), UNODC among others, for their support that enabled the boot camp to fruition, he opined that  the collaboration would provide avenue to holistically assess the level of progress made by the inaugurated taskforces across the country.

She noted that it was an undisputable fact that what anti – human trafficking stakeholders have in their hands at the moment  is a national crisis.


"This is major reason this forum is imperative for in-depth interactions among state and non-state actors.

"It would enable NAPTIP to take stock of the impact of the taskforces at the subnational levels.

“The states included Edo, Ogun, Oyo, Enugu, Rivers, Cross-River, Akwa-Ibom, Nasarawa, Plateau, Kaduna, Borno, and Jigawa.

"There is no doubt that human trafficking is a dynamic and emerging crime",she said.


Waziri-Azi, however, urged the taskforces to present and maintain a clearer picture of how human trafficking affected their communities and how traffickers were changing their tactics.

She also added that the agency would be looking forward to receiving and studying the report that would emanate from the five-day meeting.

On her part, Ms. Abimbola Adewumi, Team Leader, Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling programme, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) averred that the boot camp was a fruitful approach to addressing trafficking in persons.

Adewunmi said the 2020 UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, reported that the use of internet had been integrated into the business model of traffickers.

“The internet facilitates the luring of victims into sexual exploitation, forced labour, forced criminality and other purposes while also physically exploiting victims.

“There would be compendium of promising practices to help the taskforces in developing and effectively implementing own strategies to prevent and counter human trafficking",she added.

Also speaking the Country Project Manager, Expertise France, Mr Benjamin Eneanya, said the need to establish states’ taskforces on human trafficking was due to the increasing human trafficking activities at the grassroots.

Eneanya, pointed out that the four International Organisations – Expertise France, UNODC, IOM and FIIAPP, in collaboration with NAPTIP, organised the Peer Review for the taskforces to enhance the system and learning.

He explained that the meeting was  also to document good practices, identify challenges and work towards sustainable solutions as well as streamline the activities of the traffickers with the National Action Plan on Human Trafficking 2022-2026.

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