HUMAN TRAFFICKING: NAPTIP, COS, COMMUNITY LEADER RAISE AWARENESS AMONG IMO RESIDENTS
REPORTER: CHIKA EWURUM
As the globe commemorates World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, some concerned citizens and agencies in Owerri, Imo State, have called for concerted effort against the scourge.
They identified Human Trafficking as a heinous crime against humanity and abuse of Rights.
Trafficking in Persons, also referred to as human trafficking, is the use of force, fraud, or coercion to compel a person to provide labour, services, or commercial sex.
Speaking on the day, the Imo State Commander, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Mr. Ernest Ogbu, lamented that the children as future generation had become endangered specie as they were the target of traffickers.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Report, children are twice as likely as adults to face violence during trafficking.
Mr. Ogbu explained that NAPTIP had moved their sensitisization campaign to primary schools to ascertain that they were carried along in conformity with the theme.
The theme of the 2024 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons— “Leave No Child Behind the Fight” — has a lot to do with children as the global report records that one in three victims of human trafficking is a child and mostly girls.
Mr. Ogbu said “before we were restricted it to secondary schools, but now we have extended our campaign to primary school, even nursery, to make sure all the children are carried along in the battle against Trafficking.”
He called on parents to desist from using their children for economic succour in the face of challenges.
A community leader, Chief Melford Nze, emphasised “the war against Trafficking is not an easy one” because of parental background and peer group influence on children.
“This phenomenon is not easy to tackle as children from different families have different upbringing in addition to influences of those to come in contact with,” he said.
He called on the government to create employment opportunities that would engage young people and take them away from crime.
A member of the Civil Society Organisation, Mrs. Ukamaka Nna, acknowledged that human trafficking had taken different dimensions and colouration.
Mrs. Nna affirmed that trafficking also happened amongst the local people who did not need to take their victims outside the country.
“There are different forms and colouration. There are child labour, organ harvesters,” Mrs. Nna remarked.
She called on young people to learn a trade as a way of curbing unemployment and crime.
Recall that underaged Nigerian girls were recently rescued from their traffickers in Ghana.
EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU
