The Federal Government has lauded Ghanaian authorities for rescuing at least 219 young Nigerians who were trafficked to the West African country and forced into cybercrimes.

It also restated its commitment to providing the youth with technical education and skills to curb growing unemployment. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, stated these when she visited the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) in Accra, Ghana, where the victims of trafficking were being detained.

In a closed door meeting with the Executive Director of the Agency, Mr. Bashiru Dapilah and two of his directors, the minister expressed gratitude to the operatives for doing their job professionally especially treating the victims with dignity.

Odumegwu-Ojukwu who was in Ghana for the official launch of the 50th anniversary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers on the withdrawal of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, described as callous and inhuman, the exploitation of innocent young people.

She said that trafficking was modern slavery, obnoxious and man’s inhumanity to man.

The Minister urged Nigerian youth to shun people who may promise them irresistible job offers outside the shores of the country, explaining it might just be bait to lure them into slavery.

She stated that the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana had last Thursday, alerted her of the incident and how the victims were held under inhuman conditions by the perpetrators before the sting operation that burst the evil syndicate.

She said: “Prior to their rescue, these boys had been locked up in about 25 rooms within the estate where they were used to perpetrate cybercrimes. At the time of their arrest, many of them, being locked inside confined spaces with computers for weeks on end without being let outside, were even unable to get their eyes to adjust to the sun when they were led outside those dark rooms. Some had been serially abused with visible lacerations inflicted on them by their criminal ‘don’ while one had his legs broken for not tendering all the proceeds of his cybercrime.”

Addressing the victims at the premises of the Agency, she said that they were lucky to have been rescued, disclosing that many had lost their lives in similar circumstances while others rot in jails in parts of the world.