Mr Orakwue Arinze, Director (Intelligence) Public Enlightenment of National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons (NAPTIP) has called on Nigerians to shun investing in visa lotteries, saying they are scams.

Arinze made the call while briefing journalists at the one-day international conference on illegal migration and trafficking in persons conference, organised by Nigerian Young Professional Forum, on Tuesday in Abuja.

He, however, decried inadequate funding of the educational sector in the country, attributing it to why Nigerians patronise visa lotteries and indulge in illegal migration.

To avoid scams and issues associated with such, he admonished those craving to go abroad by all means not to patronise visa lottery advertorials.

“I want state governors to invest more on education; free functional and accessible platform for quality teaching and learning.

“Any child that is out of the umbrella of educational protection can be picked by anybody.

“There is no visa lottery anywhere; it is a scam Nigerians should stop investing in it.

“You see that thing called visa lottery, please run away; there is nothing of such.

“America visa lottery stopped a long time; there is no Canadian visa lottery, it is not in existence.

“To arrest anyone is not our priority response.

“The arrest is to educate Nigerians that those things are lies and scams,” he said.

The event, themed ‘Strengthening multi-stakeholder partnership and creating cooperation in curbing illegal migration and human trafficking,’ was attended by officials from diverse professional backgrounds. (Agency report)