The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, had said the federal Government has given approval for the deployment of officers from the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP to different ports in Nigeria.
The Minister disclosed this when she paid a visit to the Abuja headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Interior, 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 noted that the President is committed to seeing that there is a reduction in the number of persons who are exposed or prone to humanitarian crises.
She urged the heads of security agencies at the meeting to help to work with the ministry team to gather intelligence on how people are moving in and out of our country due to issues of human trafficking, child labour, and sexual exploitation, among other things which lead to humanitarian crises.
She explained that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs just got the approval for officers from NAPTIP to be present at the different ports.
She further urged each ministry to to find ways to step up intelligence in the country as there are 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.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi 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
