The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC), Rev. Tor Uja has said that the Commission would sanction states that has high propensity for abscondment during pilgrimage exercise. He disclosed this recently in his office while playing host to the Director General of National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and her Management team who paid him a courtesy visit in his office today.
He stated that abscondees work in syndicate and in some cases with some groups to facilitate their movement out of the country.
The Executive Secretary explained that abscondment is one of the biggest issues that the Commission is battling with and would do everything within its power to put a stop to it.
The NCPC Boss emphasized the need to redevelop the minds of our youths who believe that Europe is better than Nigeria. According to him” I will like Nigerians to focus on building a nation that our children can be proud of”, adding that Nigeria is a land of great opportunities”.
He explained that the partnership between the Commission and NAPTIP would go a long to tackle the issues of abscomdment and as such he opined that a team comprising both agencies should come up with a workable template on how to curb asbscondment during pilgrimage exercises.
Speaking earlier, the Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Mrs. Julie Okah-Donli thanked the NCPC boss for receiving her and her Management team.
She informed that their visit was to familiarize themselves with the Commission and to seek for ways to strengthen the existing working relationship between NAPTIP and NCPC.
The Director General informed his host that in recent time, NAPTIP has trained officers in the area of profiling, vetting and identifying of persons especially those seeking for foreign travels whose intentions are not genuine and would cause a fatal backlash to the image of the country.
Mrs. Okah-Donli therefore stressed the need for NAPTIP and NCPC to work together and ensure water tight process of screening and detect anyone with the motives of abscondment in order to prevent the crime from happening. In her words: “a renewed collaboration between NAPTIP and NCPC would enhance the screening processes and ward off any intending pilgrim whose action may negatively affect the integrity of the nation”.
