Fred Ezeh, Abuja
National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), has paraded a 43 year old Abuja Pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Phillip Olatubosun, alongside 27 year old Abuja airport taxi driver, James Eberechukwu Osuji, and 31 year old Chef, Innocent Etim, for sexual violation against minors.
The Pastor, Phillip, was alleged to have sexually violated his 17 year old housemaid repeatedly. The airport taxi driver, James, was also alleged to have drugged a 17 year old neighbour’s daughter and sexually violated her for several days while the Chef, Innocent, was alleged to have lured his 13 year old female victim with piece of cake and raped her repeatedly.
Director General of NAPTIP, Julie Okah-Donli, who paraded the suspects at its headquarters in Abuja, added that two other human traffickers, Abiona David Oluwafemi and Asia Rita, were caught at different locations by its officials as they tried to traffic some Nigerians to Finland and Libya respectively.
The NAPTIP DG who was represented by the Director, Investigation, Josiah Emerole, explained that Abiona David Oluwafemi, was caught at Finland embassy in Abuja, while he was putting finishing touches to his plan to traffic 12 persons to Finland under the guise of embarking on study tour of health facilities in Finland.
The NAPTIP official said: “In a letter, the suspect claimed to be of the Hospital Management Board of Ogun State Government. In another letter, he will claimed to be another senior Nigerian government official. All was for him to easily get visa for the people he had wanted to traffic to Finland.”
NAPTIP also paraded a 33 year old Asia Rita from Edo state, who was said to have concluded plans to traffick seven persons to Libya. She confessed that three of the victims are her children, one was her boyfriend, others were children of friend and relative.
The agency said the suspect and her victims were intercepted by officers of Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) in Katsina state and were handed over to NAPTIP for more investigation and rehabilitation.
It said that the suspects confessed to the crime and are currently in NAPTIP custody, while investigations continue. “They would appear in court as soon as possible,” it said.
The agency, thus, appealed to parents especially mothers to pay closer attention to their daughters because they are the most vulnerable ones as regards sexual harassment and violence.