Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Federal Government has decried the activities of human traffickers collecting huge sums of money from unsuspecting Nigerians to deceive them into traveling to Russia to escape into neighbouring countries.
Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Barr. Solomon Dalung, who made the disclosure while commissioning a sports complex at JC Best Schools in Abuja, said that many have already been arrested by NAPTIP.
He further warned that security gas been networked in Nigeria and Russia to arrest anybody who runs foul of the law by engaging in illegal migration.
Reminding him of how effective the riot act from the federal government on Nigerians traveling, he said: “What the federal government did was to hold series of meeting with Russian Ambassador, NAPTIP and Immigration and we directed that the list of every group traveling must be submitted to NAPTIP and no one can travel without clearance.
“Let me reveal here that in the past few days, NAPTIP has made huge arrests of people that are already running foul of the tules of human trafficking.
“The arrests have confirmed our fears that there are so many people that are not traveling to Russia to support the Super Eagles rather they have the intention to embarrass the country.
“Let me advise our young men and women from intelligence report we gathered. People pay huge sum of money to buy ticket due to the assurance from the agents that they would help them cross over to another country by syndicating their escape into neighbouring countries.
“The system on ground is effective that they would embark on a futile mission. The sister agency of NAPTIP in Russia is on read alert. Nobody will travel unless they get clearance from NAPTIP. The read alert is still in place,” he warned.
On the readiness of the Super Eagles for the tournament, he said: “The team as I said earlier is full of surprises and the team’s style of play is like shuffling of cards, which means the more you see the less you understand.
“Take for instance the way the team prosecuted its friendly matches. They brought their dominance to bear including beating Argentina, but at the terminal days of the friendly matches, the Super Eagles played what I consider the match of caution.
“They want you preserve and protect their energy and themselves for the main game. Don’t forget that most of them are young players going up the World Cup for the first time and injury can be very critical to them.
“Everybody wants to be given the opportunity to showcase his talent at his best. I don’t think their is any course for alarm and form my monitoring of the technical crew, the team is in high spirit, intact, prepared and trained effectively to deliver on their commitment. All we need is to pray for them,” he appealed.