LCCN Warns Youth Against Fake Overseas Job Offers

The Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria (LCCN) has stepped up its campaign against human trafficking and irregular migration, warning that traffickers are increasingly exploiting social media and fake promises of lucrative jobs abroad to deceive unsuspecting young Nigerians.
The warning was delivered during the LCCN National Awareness Raising Sunday held at the church’s parish in Garki, Abuja. The event, organised by the Symbols of Hope Project, the church’s anti-human trafficking initiative, focused on strengthening efforts to combat the global menace.
Country Director of the Symbols of Hope Project, Reverend Emmanuel Gabriel, said the church is leveraging its nationwide membership of about 2.7 million people to educate communities and fight what he described as a “silent pandemic.”
According to him, while migration itself is not wrong, human trafficking is a criminal act that violates both national laws and God’s standard for humanity. He explained that the campaign encourages safe and legal migration while creating awareness about the dangers of trafficking and the methods traffickers use to exploit vulnerable individuals.
Reverend Gabriel called for a coordinated, survivor-centred response involving government agencies, faith-based organisations, civil society groups and local communities to prevent trafficking, protect victims and ensure offenders are prosecuted.
He added that the Symbols of Hope Project is training Christian and Muslim faith leaders to recognise human trafficking as a humanitarian crisis rather than a religious or ethnic issue.
Also speaking, the National President of the National Council of Women’s Societies (NCWS) and Assistant Pastor at LCCN Garki, Princess Edna Azura, warned that anyone could become a victim of human trafficking.
She recounted how she narrowly escaped an international trafficking syndicate while travelling with a Nigerian delegation to the Vatican and urged the Federal Government to create more employment opportunities for young people to reduce their vulnerability to traffickers.
Princess Azura also advised parents to remain vigilant and pay close attention to their children’s needs to prevent them from falling prey to false promises of better opportunities abroad.
The campaign also featured the emotional testimony of trafficking survivor Dina Samuel, who narrated how a close relative lured her to San Francisco, California, with the promise of a domestic job.
Instead, she said she was handed over to a man who repeatedly sexually abused her, leaving her with severe physical injuries and long-term health complications, including extensive damage to her rectum and vagina that resulted in loss of bowel and bladder control.
Dina said she was eventually rescued through the intervention of the Symbols of Hope Project, which supported her with corrective surgeries and business empowerment.
Now rebuilding her life, she urged young people to be cautious of offers that appear too good to be true, stressing that they should avoid following anyone, including relatives, without proper knowledge of where they are being taken. She encouraged them to embrace honest means of livelihood, no matter how small.
Organisers disclosed that over the past seven years, the Symbols of Hope Project has provided holistic support to about 3,000 returned migrants and survivors through mental health services, education, skills training and economic empowerment