NAPTIP enlists Ogun principals in fierce battle against human trafficking

The Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Binta Bello, on Thursday, July 3, 2025, called on secondary school principals across Ogun State to join forces with the agency in tackling the pervasive issue of human trafficking in Nigeria.

Speaking through Mr. Josiah Emerole, NAPTIP’s Director of Research and Programme Development, Bello highlighted that human trafficking is ranked globally as the second-highest organized transnational crime after drug trafficking, estimated to generate a staggering $150 billion annually.

She sternly noted that Ogun State is unfortunately “one of the endemic states” for this illicit activity, making it crucial for school principals and administrators to prioritize the agency’s initiatives.

The appeal came during a two-day training session held in Abeokuta, organized in collaboration with the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).

The program brought together 50 selected secondary school principals who also coordinate Anti-Trafficking Vanguard Clubs in their respective institutions.

Bello explained that the training aims to deepen principals’ understanding of human trafficking, ensuring everyone gets involved in combating this organized crime.

While some may downplay its severity, she warned that it’s a grave evil that has claimed many young lives and shattered countless others.

“Human trafficking is a transnational organized crime, and all over the world, it is counted next, second after drug trafficking, and most of the people who fall victim are children, many children of school age,” Bello stated.

“Some of these victims are in your schools; you may not know, but after this training, you will be able to identify those victims in your schools and see how you can support them.”

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She urged the principals to use their newfound knowledge to effectively coordinate the vanguards, educate teachers, and sensitize their communities that “trafficking is a crime, it is an evil that does no one any good.”

Bello elaborated on the types of trafficking prevalent in Ogun, including both external trafficking (moving people outside the country) and a significant amount of internal trafficking (from villages to cities).

She specifically pointed out that many children brought to quarries in Ogun to break stones are victims of trafficking.

“Our working with you will help us a lot to check human trafficking within our schools because what we are doing is to catch them young from school age so that they also have the knowledge and be able to know when the criminals are around them,” she concluded.

Echoing NAPTIP‘s concerns, Rhoda Dia-Johnson, Project Manager for the School Anti-Trafficking Education and Advocacy Project at the ICMPD, lamented that news headlines continue to serve as grim reminders of how easily school children fall victim to human trafficking.