The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and other Related Matters (NAPTIP) says it has arrested 274 traffickers between January and June across the nation.

Orakwue Arinze, the Spokesperson of the agency, disclosed this in an interview with our reporters on Tuesday in Abuja.

Giving a breakdown of the arrest, male accounted for 146 and female 128.

Arinze said the offences ranged from human trafficking to child exploitative labour.

He, however, said the agency was creating public awareness through the media across states of the federation, on efforts to curb the menace.

According to him, the strategies include public enlightenment on the tricks adopted by human traffickers to lure their victims.

“NAPTIP, in a bid to curb human trafficking and other forms of sexual exploitation, has increased awareness creation in all parts of the country through the internet, social media and other forms of communication.

“We are engaging our stakeholders via social media educating people on the dangers of human trafficking as well as the tricks employed by human traffickers to lure their victims.

“The Agency is currently running a 13-week radio programme in Benin-City tagged `NAPTIP half hour’, aimed at educating the public on human trafficking and other related offences.

“There have been town hall meetings with various sectors of the community as well as massive collaboration with women, especially in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria,” Arinze said.

“The Executive Secretary is putting a lot of efforts and resources into prevention by educating the public, especially those in rural areas where most of the victims of human traffickers are recruited from,” he explained.

Arinze NAPTIP was collaborating with the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) to include anti-trafficking topics in primary and secondary schools’ curricula.

This measure, he, said would guarantee every child that passes through primary and secondary schools to know about human trafficking.

Arinze, who said prevention was key to checking crimes, said the agency was making efforts to provide resources for effective public enlightenment that would change public minds against the menace.

“One of the four P’s guiding the Agency’s activities is Prevention and it is our belief that preventing a crime from happening is cardinal,” he said.