Ekiti State command of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP) has detained one Ojo Abefe on suspicion of child trafficking.
The suspect, a native of Ada in Oroade local government area of Osun State, was accused of selling two ladies to agents in Mali for prostitution, including a minor and a graduate of Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti.
On Monday, September 25, 2023, the Ekiti State Head of Operations, NAPTIP, Mr. Samson Oladimeji, stated that the suspect was given over to the agency by operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, (NSCDC), Ekiti State’s anti-child trafficking unit.
Oladimeji noted that human trafficking has become widespread in the state and that it must be stopped at all costs.
He added that between January and September, about eighteen suspects were apprehended, while 23 victims were rescued from Libya, Mall, Togo, and Burkina Faso.
He stated that the suspect, who is now being investigated at the agency’s Ado-Ekiti office, would be charged in court as soon as the investigation was done.
Oladimeji highlighted that many child trafficking victims were being dangerously exposed to exploitation, prostitution, enslavement, and other criminal crimes that often subjected them to traumatic experiences, deaths, and unimaginable suffering.
He went on to say that what was most heartbreaking was that the majority of the deaths were school-age children from low-income families.
He cautioned that the agency will not spare anyone caught up in the web of such unwholesome and criminal conduct in the state and that they will face the full force of the law.
One of the rescued victims, Oluwatosin Apata, described her ordeal, saying Abefe sold her to an agent who tried to seduce her into prostitution.
She claimed she remained in Mali for four months before being rescued and returned to Nigeria.