The House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora has urged Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to complement each other’s effort to protect the integrity of Nigerians in diaspora.
Akande-Sadipe said that there were cases where Nigerians travel abroad for medical tourism only to discover years later that a vital organ had been stolen.
The lawmaker said that there are also cases where human organs have been taken away from Nigeria through land and air borders without consent.
According to her, some Nigerians collaborate with foreigners to perpetuate these crimes home or abroad.
She said that some innocent Nigerians are made to suffer inhume treatments and in some cases, are killed for an offense they do not know anything about.
“All the relevant agencies are here today to see how we can put an end to this; we must set aside agency pride to protect Nigerians across the globe.
“This idea of agencies claiming superiority over the other has to stop,” she said.
Akande-Sadipe recommended the establishment of legal desk in all nigerian missions to provide services for Nigerians abroad that cannot afford lawyers.
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Amb. Zubairu Dada, told the lawmakers that the ministry was doing its best to protect Nigerians abroad.
He said that like other citizens of the world, Nigerians were free to live and carry out their legitimate businesses anywhere across the globe in pursuit of a better life.
The minister said that though they were a few bad eggs giving the country a bad image, they were many others contributing to world development.
Dada pledged the ministry’s commitment to the protection of Nigerians across the world in spite of all the challenges the ministry faces.
According to him, that the job will be made much easier if all Nigerians will always obey the laws and system of their host countries.
He explained that it would be difficult to defend any Nigerian found guilty of breaking the laws in a foreign land.
The minister said that but for paucity of funds, Nigerian missions should be able to procure legal services for Nigerians in diaspora.
Ms Julie Okah-Donli, the Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) recommended that Nigerians should be sensitized to identify with Nigerian missions in their host countries.
She said that NAPTIP should be carried along by other agencies when Nigerians are to be deported or returned to enable the agency track suspects on their list.
Other agencies at the event included Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Federal Ministry of Justice, Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) Coperate Affairs Commission (CAC) and Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS).
