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Ogun state, Southwest Nigeria now holds the national record of being the most unsafe, where people disappear without trace.

Arinze Orakwe,the director of public enlightenment, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and Other Related Matters(NAPTIP) disclosed this at a Media Roundtable on Trafficking in Persons organised by the European Union in Calabar, Cross River state.

“The most dangerous place where people disappear now is Ogun State and the police know about this,” he said.

He linked the high rate of human disappearance to the use of human organs for rituals, what he called organ harvesting.

All the states in Nigeria were vulnerable to trafficking, he said, but 22 states were most vulnerable.

Orakwe said that apart from that, Boko Haram also perpetrate their heinous acts by using children for suicide mission.

According to him, the suicide bomber used by Boko Haram to perpetrate their heinous crime is sequel to child trafficking by this gang of insurgents.

Orakwe said that if poverty was reduced and infrastructures available in the country, issues of trafficking in persons would be highly reduced.

He said that the proliferation of education agencies recruiting unsuspecting students for overseas admission because of failure in the education sector was largely responsible for trafficking in Nigeria.

Mr Sylvester Atere, the Outreach and Communication Officer, UNODC, Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) listed factors responsible for trafficking.

He said that they include poverty, the desire to earn a living, greed, ignorance, parental negligence among others.

According to him, some of the things facilitating trafficking in persons are denied freedom of movement, psychological abuse, gender division and unequal international economic relations.

He said that trafficking in persons was third most lucrative business in the world, aside drug trafficking and armed smuggling.
He added that such business was inimical to the growth and development of the society.

Atere said that trafficking in persons debased the essence of humanity, while calling on Nigerians to report any act of trafficking to the appropriate agencies of government.