Edo, Kano and Delta States are Leading in Cases of Human Trafficking in Nigeria

National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person (NAPTP) has disclosed that Edo, Kano and Delta States are leading in cases of human trafficking.

NAPTP also disclosed that Edo State has one-fifth or 21 percent of the rescued victims, Kano has 10 while Delta has 7.2 percent.

Meanwhile,  NAPTIP   says it rescued 11,819 Nigerians from human traffickers up till December 2018. The statistics are from the Nigeria Country Report of Human Trafficking 2019 by NAPTIP obtained exclusively by our correspondent on Wednesday.

The document showed a breakdown of the rescued victims by their states of origin, making the South-South comprising Edo, Delta, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross-River and Rivers States the most prevalent for human trafficking with 40.7 percent of the total number of victims.

The North-West followed with 19.8 percent, with  Kano leads in the zone with 1,114 victims. The report disclosed that “From inception to December 2018, NAPTIP has received 11,819 Nigerian victims of trafficking.

One-fifth of the Nigerian victims are indigenes of Edo State and about one-tenth of the
victims are from Kano State. Other states with significant percentages include Akwa-Ibom, 8.1; Delta, 7.2; Benue, 4.2; and Cross River,4.2.

“In numbers, Cross River has 486 victims, Delta, 855, Imo, 509, Ogun 286, and Sokoto, 347 victims. The South-East has 16.7 percent of all the victims. Other zones – North-Central, South-West, and North-East recorded 10.1, 8.9 and 3.8 per cents respectively.

“Women and children are the most vulnerable in the victims of human trafficking. This is evident following the distribution where 71.2 percent of rescued victims are females and 50.3 percent are children.”

The 2019 report also highlighted 39 countries from where some of the victims were rescued, with Libya, Mali, the  United Arab Emirates, The Niger Republic and Burkina Faso topping the list.

The document showed that 2,389 victims were rescued by the agency from the five countries. Libya had 568, Mali  258, UAE 184, Niger 278 and  Burkina Faso 196 victims.