The National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons (NAPTIP) has advised Nigerians to shun investing in visa lotteries, warning that such schemes are scams.

NAPTIP’s Director of Intelligence and Public Enlightenment, Orakwue Arinze made the call while briefing journalists at a one-day international conference on Illegal Migration and Trafficking in Persons organized by the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum on Tuesday in Abuja.

Mr. Arinze decried  inadequate funding of the educational sector in the country, attributing it to why Nigerians patronize visa lotteries and indulge in illegal migration.

To avoid scams and issues associated with such lotteries, the agency admonished those craving to go abroad by all means not to patronize visa lotteries and related advertorials.

His words: “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.”