Binta Adamu Bello, the Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), has committed to increasing cooperation between State and Non-State actors in the West African corridors in order to combat the human trafficking syndicate that operates there.
At the NAPTIP Lagos Command Office, Ikeja, the Director General made this statement while meeting with more than 200 human trafficking victims who had been rescued by Ghanaian authorities via their Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO).
To recall, the Executive Director of the Economic and Organized Crimes Office, Ghana, Abdulai Bashiru Dapilah, wrote a letter to the Director of NAPTIP titled “Request for Assistance to Screen Suspects of Human Trafficking for Possible Prosecution in Nigeria.” In Oyanfa, a Ghanaian suburb of Accra, “a gang of people suspected of being Nigerians were engaged in human trafficking and prohibited cybercrimes and related activities within Kumasi,” the report claims. Out of approximately 50 houses in Kumsark Estate at Oyarifa, about 30 are occupied by the traffickers and their victims. The victims are mainly young men, some of whom are minors”.On Thursday April 17th, 2025, the Office conducted a search operation within the Kumsark Estate during which 20 houses were searched. A total of 231 Nigerians nationals were found comprising 227 males and four females with age ranging from 15 to 18 years”, the Ghana EOCO said.
Adamu, who was accompanied by Mrs. Comfort Agboko, the Lagos State Commander of NAPTIP, revealed that although many of the victims were trafficked for sexual exploitation, some were tricked, enlisted, and transported to Ghana, where they were coerced into committing cybercrimes.
She said: “We are seriuosly distrubed by the latest development which is gradually making Ghana and other neighbuoring Countries, an epicenter of trafficking precisely cybercrime and other exploitation. We have commenced discussion with some of our sister law enforcment agencies in Ghana, Cote D’voire, Mali, Gambia and other countries within the African corridor, to restrategize and dismatle the emerging organizsed criminal gangs wthin the areas.This also involved a review of some of the existing Memoradum of Understanding (MOU), bilateral agreement and other legal instruments with a view to ensuring synergy and collateral response”.
She further stated that “At the moment, we shall commence the profiling of these returnees to ascertain their medical needs, their health status, the required skills and other basic varriable in order to render to them victim support cares and prost trauma services.it should be pointed out that the latest development is a fallout of our sustained onslaught on these criminal elements in Nigeria. In the past few months, NAPTIP has continue to dusrupt their activities through our Cybercrime Response Team resulting in the arrest of several of them. This probably explains why they relocated to Ghana. But, we shall smoke them out of Ghana with the support of our partner, EOCO and the Immigration Services”.
“At the same time, the suspects among them shall be throughly investigated and prosecuted in line with the provisions of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Adminstration Act 2003 as re-enacted in 2015”, the NAPTIP Boss said.
She expressed her gratitude to the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigeria Disapora Commission, the Nigeria Immigration Service, and the EOCO Ghana and other partners for their assistance, promising that the suspect would be held accountable.
