Muhammed Babandede, Comptroller General,NIS

Officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) say it has arrested eight Ghanaian ladies over alleged attempted human trafficking at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

The suspects were apprehended on Monday while attempting to fly from the Lagos airport to Kuwait en route Europe for prostitution.

It was gathered that the movement of the ladies inside the departure terminal attracted the attention of the immigration officers who accosted them and discovered that they were in possession of Ghana International Passports.

A top official of the NIS, who confirmed the development to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN on the condition of anonymity, said the arrested ladies were booked on Egypt Air out of Lagos to Cairo, from where they intended to transit to Kuwait.

The source said that the suspected traffickers, aged between 20 and 25, confessed that they had wanted to use Nigeria as a transit point to Europe.

“When our officers interrogated them, we discovered that they had no genuine reasons for attempting to use Nigeria as a transit point to Europe. So, this led to further query from our officers. When they were asked, they confessed to the fact that they were actually crossing to Europe, but intended to land in Kuwait first”.

“During interrogation, it was further discovered that the ladies in question actually entered Nigeria by road from Ghana to Togo and then to Benin Republic. But, the fact is that since the current Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mr Muhammed Babandede came onboard, he had increased vigilance at not just the Lagos airport, but at other border posts across the country,” the official said.

According to the source, the ladies were handed over to officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigations.