Benue State has been ranked Nigeria’s epicentre of human trafficking between 2021 and 2022, with Ondo, Edo, Delta, Kano and Imo states following closely respectively in the infamous list.

This was disclosed yesterday by the Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Prof. Fatima Waziri-Azi, in Abuja at the yearly colloquium of Epiphany Azinge Foundation.

The event organised in collaboration with National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and NAPTIP, had as its theme: ‘Modern day slavery.’ In her keynote address, the NAPTIP DG condemned human trafficking in all its forms, calling on all hands to be on deck to halt the menace.

“For the year 2021 and 2022, Benue State had the highest number of rescued victims of human trafficking, followed by Ondo, Edo, Delta, Kano and Imo. There is a reduction in the number of victims from Edo State. However, Edo indigenes are the highest perpetrators of human trafficking within and outside Nigeria.

“In 2022, we received 1,464 reports, which was a 31.9 per cent increase from 2021. In terms of prosecution, 80 convictions were secured in 2022 – the highest in a single year since NAPTIP’s inception,” Waziri-Azi said.

Other experts who spoke at the event, including the Minister of State for Police Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim; Executive Secretary of NHRC, Anthony Ojukwu (SAN); and immediate past chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasonye, called for an end to modern day slavery.

They lamented that while the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which ended slavery on December 10, 1948, it has resurfaced in modern forms seven decades after.

Quoting the 2023 Global Slavery Index, Ojukwu and Waziri-Azi lamented that 1.6 million Nigerians are living in modern slavery daily. Specifically, Ojukwu said the demand for cheap labour has worsened the situation.

In his presentation, he submitted that the act exists in forced labour, sexual exploitation, debt bondage, migrant workers, forced marriages, human trafficking among others.

The founder and convener, Epiphany Azinge Foundation, Prof. Epiphany Azinge (SAN) called for an end to all forms of modern-day slavery in Nigeria, stressing that it was the right of individuals to enjoy freedom regardless of their status in the society.