Trafficking in Human Persons, THP, remains one scourge that has continued to ravage a good number of African countries with no concrete statistics on which country is particularly worse off in the crime against humanity.
While statistics remain vague across respective countries, Nigeria has been witnessing a steady rise in the wave THP as it has continued to assume an alarming notoriety as cases of trafficking keep reeling out in reports rabidly across the country.
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, relevant NGOs among others have been unrelenting in their war against the merchants of infamy and have become more daring and unyielding to the moves to curb their activities.
It is worrisome that minors and under-aged persons are not spared in the trafficking business making it a venture whose sponsors and dealers are undoubtedly depraved and lacking morality and good conscience.
In Nigeria Oyo, Nasarawa and Taraba States are in the news as recent theatres of suspected cases of trafficking and the indications from incidents are not in any way cherry.
In Oyo State, one 28-year-old woman, Kemi Kolawole, was arrested in connection with an alleged human trafficking case involving a 17-year-old girl reportedly taken out of the country for prostitution while still in the care of her guardians in a manner that suggests the victim was also “hypnotized”.
The woman, a resident of Ifeleye, Ogunpa area of Ibadan and a native of Oyo town, was arrested by operatives of the Command’s Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, following a complaint lodged by the victim’s elder sister on January 20.
According to the NSCDC, the victim, identified as Ayomide Olayiwola, was allegedly trafficked on November 25, 2025, by the suspect and her husband, aged 32, who is currently at large. The couple allegedly lured the teenager with false promises of a job opportunity abroad before facilitating her movement out of Nigeria.
While it is interesting that the command is still investigating the full details of the operation and the possible existence of a wider trafficking network, findings so far indicate that the victim was deceived and recruited under false pretenses and was first taken to Cote’ d Ivoire and later to Libya, where she was allegedly forced into prostitution.
While the Nasarawa episode had 17 minors of 11 boys and six girls all teenagers saw NAPTIP officials apprehending the alleged trafficker who could not make coherent and comprehensible details on the children in his custody.
In Taraba a suspected human trafficker was arrested and 10 boys were rescued by NAPTIP.
These incidents represent indeed just a tip of the iceberg and a few instances where luck ran against the perpetrators. The aforementioned rescued victims of human trafficking are just a few of the several hundreds of victims who have been trafficked under various guises only to run into harmful life in far-flung countries where uncertainty and most times a bleak future awaits.
It is also demanding for several victims who are forced to do their ‘masters’ bidding by first ‘working hard’ to pay off the expenses incurred. In some more daring instances, the dangerous adventures through the Mediterranean Sea where thousands of lives have been lost is appalling.
With all sense of weightiness and morality, the business of THP should be abhorred and resisted by all and sundry.
Therefore, we condemn any form of modern slavery no matter how lucrative it may appear on its face value. It cannot be anything impressive in the long-run especially for unwary minors and youngsters who may be unable to take meaningful decisions on their own.
With the intensity with which the criminals are toughening, there is an urgency for security agencies to collaborate and share intelligence where and when necessary to track offenders.
Besides, the authorities must be amply empowered with tools and adequate welfare concerns to avoid compromising in the onerous task of confronting human traffickers.
