PHOTO CAPTION:
L-R: Director General NAPTIP, Dame Julie Okah-Donli; Hon. Minister, FCT, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello; Minister of State, FCT, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu; Permanent Secretary, FCTA, Sir Chinyeaka Ohaa; Ag. Secretary, Social Development Secretariat, Hajia Safiya Umar, all holding up copies of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act During the courtesy call…recently
The Honourable Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has co-opted the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) into the FCT Security Committee in its effort to check human trafficking and allied crimes in the FCT.
The Minister who carried out this action recently when the Director General of NAPTIP, Dame Julie Okah-Donli led a delegation of officials from the Agency on a courtesy visit to the FCT Administration, said this became necessary in view of the security challenge trafficking in humans poses for the FCT.
He stressed that human trafficking involved criminal gangs which go hand in hand with drug pushers and other such crimes. In his words “ once you see human traffickers, you see drug pushers and then you see commercial sex workers, you find out that it’s a clique that is intertwined and eventually it also transcend into criminality in form of pick pocketing, one chance and so on. All these are interrelated and that is why I feel that your organization can be coopted to serve in the FCT Security Committee”.
While commending NAPTIP for its fight against human trafficking, Malam Bello assured officials of the Agency that there were many possible areas of cooperation between FCTA and NAPTIP. He urged the Agency to work very closely with the Social Development Secretariat of the FCT under the supervision of the Honorable Minister of State.
On the request by the NAPTIP to revoke the titles of buildings used for human trafficking, the Minister said “we will revoke titles. As a matter of fact, we will equally demolish properties because for every property there is a specific land use and I have checked and there is no place where it is written that a property should be used for trafficking”.
Also speaking, the FCT Minister of state, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu said that FCTA’s collaboration with NAPTIP will be fundamental in bringing about the needed sanity to the city and ridding the FCT of traffickers and their cohorts.
Speaking earlier, the NAPTIP DG called for a stronger partnership with the FCT Administration to push the campaign against human trafficking to all nooks and crannies of the FCT. She added that her organization had recorded tremendous success so far and would need the support of the FCTA to achieve more.
She said that while the Agency has taken enlightenment campaigns to schools and communities, a lot more needed to be done if the menace of human trafficking is to be stamped out.
She also called for the assistance of the FCT Administration in the enforcement of the VAPP (Violence Against Persons Prohibition) Act 2015 which she disclosed is domiciled with NAPTIP but applicable only in the FCT. Other states of the Federation she explained are enjoined to adopt provisions of the Act, adding that, so far, seven states have adopted it.
She further urged the FCT Administration to also revoke the Certificates of Occupancy for buildings used for trafficking in persons, forced prostitution and other similar crimes.
