The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) welcomed 231 Nigerians repatriated from Ghana, including 27 individuals identified as suspected traffickers.
The returnees, handed over to NAPTIP and the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) by the Government of Ghana through the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), arrived in Nigeria following a significant crackdown on a human trafficking and cybercrime syndicate operating from a gated estate in Ghana.
Among the returnees welcomed on Thursday evening, April 24, four women were believed to be victims of trafficking, while the remaining individuals were young Nigerian men, some of whom had reportedly spent years in captivity, allegedly used for cyber fraud by the syndicate.
At the handover ceremony at NAPTIP’s office in Ikeja, EOCO official Dominic Mensah explained that the operation, dubbed “Operation Rescue Shield,” was launched after a tip-off regarding illegal activities in 26 houses within a single estate in Ghana.
According to EOCO’s staff of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, Staff Officer Dominic Meza, “We received a complaint on March 28th from an informant alleging that a group of Nigerians were using young people for cybercrime. Surveillance was carried out, and we launched the operation at 3:30 a.m. one week ago with support from national security and police services. A total of 233 persons were initially arrested.”
Meza added that the victims had been lured to Ghana under the pretext of getting jobs but ended up being trapped and forced into cybercrime. Many had spent between a few weeks and several years in the facility.