The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in Kebbi State has said it has intercepted, rescued and handed over 52 trafficked victims to the National Agency for Prohibition in Trafficking of Persons (NAPTIP) from February last year.

The Kebbi NIS Controller, Rabi Bashir Nuhu, who disclosed this to journalists during a briefing to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the service, said that upon her assumption of office in February last year, the command succeeded in intercepting many youths, mostly girls, that were being planned for trafficking to Libya through the Illela border in Sokoto State.

She said, "We also intercepted many illegal immigrants trying to move in and out of Nigeria through the Kebbi borders."

She noted that what was more worrisome was that most of the victims of human trafficking were youths that had no knowledge of what awaited them on their way and in Libya where they were being trafficked to.

She added that the service was carved out of the police in 1958.