Man arrested for trafficking a minor to Mali for prostitution

The National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP) Ekiti State command, has arrested one Ojo Abefe, over alleged child trafficking.

The suspect, a native of Ada in Oroade local government area of Osun State, was alleged to have sold two females, including a minor and a graduate of Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, to agents in Mali for prostitution.

Parading the suspect on Monday, September 25, 2023, the Ekiti State Head of Operations, NAPTIP, Mr. Samson Oladimeji, confirmed that the suspect was handed over to the agency by operatives of the anti-child trafficking of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, (NSCDC), Ekiti State.

Oladimeji lamented that the act of human trafficking has become rampant in the state and must be curtailed by all means. He said that during the period from January to September, approximately eighteen suspects were arrested and 23 victims had been rescued in Libya, Mali, Togo and Burkina Faso.

He added that the suspect who is currently being investigated in the office of the agency at Ado Ekiti would be brought before a court immediately after an investigation has been completed.

Oladimeji revealed that many victims of child trafficking were being dangerously exposed to exploitation, prostitution, slavery and other nefarious acts that often subject them to all manners of harrowing experiences, deaths and untold sufferings. He added that the most pathetic was the fact that those falling victims are majorly children of school age and those from less privileged backgrounds.

He warned that the agency would not spare anyone caught up in a web of such unforgivable and criminal acts in the state, saying that they would have to face the full weight of the law. Narrating her ordeal, one of the rescued victims, Oluwatosin Apata, said Abefe sold her to an agent, who attempted to lure her into prostitution. She claims that before she was rescued and brought back to Nigeria, she spent four months in Mali.

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