The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has commenced the manhunt for an alleged notorious human trafficker following the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl and her son from Anambra community.
Dr. Fatima Waziri-Azi, director general of NAPTIP, who gave the order for the manhunt, said the suspect, known only as Nkiru, is thought to be headquartered in Ghana and picks her victims from isolated areas in Nigeria.
The DG said in a bulletin that the order was given in response to a community uproar in Awka-Etiti, in the Idemili South Local Government Area (LGA), where the victim lives after she vanished.
She said Nkiru’s suspected accomplice, Nwankama Nzube, also known as Zuma, who was earlier arrested and released on bail for his role in facilitating the recruitment and transportation of the victim to Ghana, is currently under surveillance.
Waziri-Azi said Nzube was released to assist NAPTIP in its investigation in tracing the whereabouts of the victims and their fleeing trafficker.
According to the communique, Nzube “was apprehended by the Community Vigilance of Etiti, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State and handed over to the Police on the suspicion that the victim was his girlfriend and he was the last person seen with her.
“On interrogation, the suspect admitted that the trafficker approached him at a shopping mall in Nnewi and requested for a girl that will work in her bar in Ghana, the development that prompted him to recruit the victim for her. The victim was said to have travelled with her 3-month-old boy and nothing has been heard about her since then.”
The DG assured that NAPTIP in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies will continue to work towards locating and rescuing the victim and her baby as well as track and arrest the perpetrators.