Charles Nwankwo – Abakaliki
National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has called for individual effort to combat crime of Human Trafficking, other degradation and exploitation in Nigeria.
The head NAPTIP Ebonyi State Liaison Officer Bertha Offor made the call while addressing Journalists on the 2022 commemoration of World Day Against Human Trafficking being celebrated on 30th July every year.
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Offor who unveiled the theme of this year’s event “The use and abuse of technology” stated that technology has impaired and helped in the fight against human trafficking, stated that the perpetrators use it to track the vulnerable ones through recruitment, profiling them to know who is viable for them to exploit, also NAPTIB partners with Facebook use it to track perpetrators of the evil crime.
“Today we are saying no to human trafficking, child labour and abuse in Ebonyi state and the whole nation. We are saying that the use of technology should be for good and not for evil things. The menace is high in Ebonyi state, we have so many reported cases of child labour, trafficking for sexual exploitation in the State, it is not yielding to the development of any state of nation rather it gives bad name and record”
The state liaison Officer appealed media practitioners to help and spread the information to the hinterlands so that every nook and cranny will hear about human trafficking and how to prevent it.
Also speaking in the event, the State Coordinator Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labour (NACTAL) Lorieth Nwafor said that they are working and networking with Civil Society Organizations (CSO)s that have project dealing against human trafficking issues in the rural areas, charging them to be the community vanguard, because fighting against human trafficking and abuse needs a holistic approach.
Volunteers in the various projects are charged with the responsibility to ensuring that people in the hinterlands know there is law against the menace, and anyone caught in the devilish act will face the wrought of the law.
The Representative of Attorney General and Chairman Ebonyi State Taskforce on Human Trafficking who doubles as the Coordinator Gender Base Violence Taskforce (GBV) Ebonyi State Barr. Faithvin Nwancho noted that the Ebonyi State Governor has given an enabling environment through the Hon. Commissioner for Information and State Orientation that there should be no sacred cow in enforcement of rape and any kind of human abuse in Ebonyi State. He said that policies have been made to deal with perpetrators.
The Nigerian Xpress observed that NAPTIP has been given a home to work comfortably through the Ministry of Women Affairs and Rural Development and Ebonyi state will son finish furnishing the Safe Home for Survivors of any form of abuse.
