The National Agency for the Prohibition
of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), on Saturday said it would
commence investigation into illegal human organ harvesting in the country.
Organ harvesting is the illegal removal
of human organ or tissue without a person’s consent, generally to be sold on
the black market for organ transplants.
The Director General of NAPTIP, Julie
Okah-Donlim, speaking in Abuja, said cases of organ harvesting was complicated,
stressing that NAPTIP would carry out full investigation in order to bring
perpetrators to book.
She decried the rising cases of organ
harvesting in the guise of ritual killings in some parts of the country.
Her words: “NAPTIP has decided to begin
full investigation because most of the times, other law enforcement agencies go
out, they will come to tell us that the suspected organ harvesting was actually
ritual murder. And we have resolved to carry out our independent investigation
because the law gives us the power to do that and we have strong reasons to
believe that these are cases of organ harvesting. When that is established
after our investigation, we will go after everyone found involved with the full
arm of the law.”
Okah-Donlim said that NAPTIP, under her
watch, would continue with its mandate of fighting all forms of human
trafficking in the country. She noted that organ trafficking was a form of
human trafficking and an organized crime.
The UN Gift Hub said that organ
trafficking falls into three categories. Traffickers who trick the victim into
giving up an organ for no cost; con artists who convince victims to sell their
organs, but who do not pay or who pay less than they agreed to pay; and doctors
who treat people for ailments which may or may not exist and remove the organs
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