The Director General of NAPTIP, Julie Okah, has advised the FCT minister, Muhammad Musa Bello to revoke the Certificate of Occupancy of buildings used for trafficking in persons, prostitution and other similar crimes in the territory.
Okah gave the advice when she paid a courtesy call on the minister in his office last Friday in Abuja.
She solicited the minister’s support in tackling trafficking, stressing that NAPTIP had recorded successes so far and would need the support of the FCT administration to achieve more.
She said that while the agency had taken enlightenment campaign to schools and communities, a lot more needed to be done if human trafficking must be stamped out.
She therefore solicited the assistance of the FCT administration in the enforcement of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act 2015, domiciled in NAPTIP but applicable only in the FCT.
Responding, the FCT Minister, Muhammad Bello, expressed his administration’s readiness to partner with the agency to tackle human trafficking in the territory.
He said human trafficking involved criminal gangs, which he said go hand in hand with drug pushers and other such crimes.
“And once you see human traffickers, you see drug pushers and then you see commercial sex workers.
“You will find out that it is a clique that is intertwined and eventually transcends into criminality in the form of pickpocket and ‘one chance’ and so on.
“And all this is interrelated and that is why I feel that your organisation can be co-opted to serve in the FCT Security Committee,” Bello said. Daily trust