The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) on thursday handed over four girls and a driver from Oyo, to the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
They were arrested in Kebbi on their way to Libya and Liberia.
The four girls, aged between 18 and 25, were traveling with the driver when they were arrested by immigration personnel in Yauri Local Government Area of Kebbi.
The Comptroller of the NIS in the state, Mrs Rabi Bashir-Nuhu, announced this while addressing newsmen in Birnin Kebbi.
“The girls and the driver were intercepted at Yauri border patrol on Nov. 13 as they were travelling from Oyo and Lagos to Sokoto with the driver as their guide.
“The officers became suspicious of them, started asking questions and later discovered that they were travelling to Liberia and Libya enroute to Sokoto.
“The driver should be investigated thoroughly as he is suspected to be trafficking them.
Bashir-Nuhu assured that NIS would not allow any suspicious character or person profiting from human trafficking to pass through its net in the state.
The driver, however, told newsmen that he picked the girls at a petrol filling station along the road in Oyo State, going to Sokoto.
One of the victims, told newsmen that she was going to Sokoto to meet a relative.
“We are not going out of the country now, we are going to meet a relative and spend some months with him before we may move out of the country.
” My parents are aware that I am going to spend sometimes in Sokoto before we move out of the country,” she said.
Receiving the victim, the State Commander of National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons (NAPTIP), Alhaji Misbahu Iyya-Kaura, said that the agency would undertake thorough investigation of the matter.
“It is part of our mandate to search, arrest and investigate cases of trafficking.
“We promise to investigate the level of their involvement from their home town up to the level of their final destination,” he said.
Iyya-Kaura commended NIS for collaborating with the agency to eradicate human trafficking in the country. (NAN)
