The Federal Government has given approval for the deployment of officers from the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) to the nation’s seaports, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, has said.
Edu disclosed this when she paid a visit to the Federal Ministry of Interior, Abuja, according to a statement issued by her Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Rasheed Zubair, on Wednesday.
The minister said internal security issues, human trafficking and migration were some of the factors that led to insecurity, humanitarian crises and poverty across the country.
Edu told the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, that collaboration between both ministries would enable her to get the intelligence required to manage humanitarian responses in Nigeria.
She said, “My coming here is to quickly speak with you because your ministry is one of the ministries that will make my job easier. The President is committed to seeing that he reduces the number of persons who are exposed or prone to humanitarian crisis.
“I am saying this because a lot of our work depends on how well you do your work in the Ministry of Interior. We need your support and we need it at all levels. The heads of security agencies here at this meeting will help to work with our team to gather intelligence on how people are moving in and out of our country.
“There are issues of human trafficking, child labour, sexual exploitation, among other things which lead to humanitarian crises. We cannot continue to allow this trend to go unattended, it is not acceptable. We need your support. We need intelligence from you.
“We just got the approval for officers from NAPTIP to be present at the different ports. We need you to know the importance of our collaboration with you on the border. We have to find ways to step up our intelligence in Nigeria. We have too many illegal borders.”
Edu also said the social register would be expanded to capture widows of paramilitary officers who died in active service, adding that inmates of the Nigeria Correctional Services would benefit from skill acquisition programme of her ministry.
Tunji-Ojo, in his response, said the inter-ministerial committee headed by the two permanent secretaries in the two ministries would work out modalities to strengthen the focus of their agenda.
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