The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has appealed to judges and prosecutors on diligent prosecution of traffickers and Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) cases.

The Director-General of the agency, Dr Fatima Waziri-Azi, made the plea on Thursday in Abuja at the opening
session of a two-day Judge’s and Prosecutors Conference on Human Trafficking.

The conference was organised by the International and
Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP) with support of NAPTIP.

Foundation  International and
Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP) is a Spanish foundation providing in Nigeria the Action Against Trafficking in
Persons and Smuggling of Migrants (A-TIPSOM) project, funded by the European Union.

Waziri-Azi noted that diligent prosecution became necessary for the agency to secure more convictions, adding that
trafficking was on the high side in the country.

According to her, the objective of the conference is to create a platform where the agency can interact with judges and prosecutors on issue of human trafficking.

The director-general added that the issue of human trafficking had changed overtime, from lower operations to a
bigger one, saying there was need for the law enforcement agencies to revolve around the changes.

The  agency has recorded a total number of 513 convictions, of which, 16 were achieved in 2022.

Adding that this did not really match the target with the enormity of trafficking cases in Nigeria, but
expressed optimism that the conference would open up more conversations toward achieving more.

She called on states to emulate the FCT which recently designated special judges to handle SGBV cases.