The panacea to the prevalence of organ harvesting in Nigeria is by getting involve in the activities of youths.
Mr. Josiah Emerole, Director, Public Enlightenment, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, advocated against human trafficking crimes in all its forms in order to reduce the vulnerability of youths.
He gave this hint on Tuesday during a 3-day training and capacity building workshop for journalists in Asaba, Delta State, funded by European Union, EU, and FIIAP (Ibero-American Government and Public Policy Foundation) implemented by Action against Trafficking In Persons and Smuggling of Migrants in Nigeria, A-TIPSOM.
According to Emerole, “Youths are the one getting more involved in the issue of organ harvesting because of meagre monetary gains in the name of Yahoo-Yahoo Plus.”
He noted that the agency has not relented in fighting against the crime by sensitising the youths.
“Our focus has always been on the youths because of the importance of youths in any Nation.”
“The youths are the leaders of tomorrow, he said, stressing that if the youths are destroyed the leadership of tomorrow would be affected.”
He explained that apart from those who are genuinely going to give organs to their relatives, majority of the people whose organs are taken are not taken in a proper manner and lie to them that the other one will regenerate or that they can live with one.
“They will not tell them the implication, they will not tell them what to do even after one has been taken from them to live longer.
“Their own business is let us take it. And some criminals sometimes will take both of them. They don’t care, their own business is to take it away and sell because it is a lot of money.”
Also, the agency was said to have secured 516 convictions of perpetrators of human trafficking in its 20 years of operation, just as it rescued, rehabilitated close to 18,000 victims of human trafficking and made to become better citizens.
Earlier in his welcome remark, Senior Project Officer, A-TIPSOM, Joseph Sanwo, informed that the training was implemented by FIIAP, a Spanish government foundation and funded by the European Union, with a view to reducing trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants in Nigeria.
He also mentioned that only four agencies in Nigeria namely; NAPTIP, the Police, the Nigeria Immigration and the Network Against Child Trafficking Abuses and Labour, NACTAL, an umbrella body for civil organisations on human trafficking benefited from the gesture.
The training according to him was the second in the series for journalists, even as he expressed optimism that it would enhance participants reportage on human trafficking.
He informed that about 13 victims have become graduates of universities through the sponsorship of NAPTIP and out of all of the people, three of them are working for NAPTIP, currently being led by the Director General, Dr. Fatima Waziri-Azi.
