Updating your news feed...
NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s leading online newspaper. Published by Africa’s international award-winning journalist, Mr. Isaac Umunna, NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s first truly professional online daily newspaper. It is published from Lagos, Nigeria’s economic and media hub, and has a provision for occasional special print editions. Thanks to our vast network of sources and dedicated team of professional journalists and contributors spread across Nigeria and overseas, NEWS EXPRESS has become synonymous with newsbreaks and exclusive stories from around the world.
By FATIMA MOHAMMED-LAWAL
The Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labour (NACTAL), an NGO, says Kwara is a hot spot for human trafficking because of the state’s geographical.
Mr Oyedeji Olufemi, the Kwara Coordinator of NACTAL, said this on Thursday in Ilorin during a stepdown training on Countering Trafficking in Persons (CTIP).
According to him, the state is having national and international borders.
He explained that Kwara is a gateway between the North and South of the country and also borders with Republic of Benin.
Olufemi noted that traffickers recruit targets into forced prostitution, forced labour and organ harvesting, among others.
He stated that young people who are in the future generation and bedrock of the nation are being lost to trafficking.
“These people die as they are being trafficked through the Libyan deserts and the Mediterranean seas and organ harvesting,” he said.
According to him, traffickers generate about $150 billion through their nefarious activities of human, drug trafficking and gun running.
“Nigeria is however making progress in the area of war against human trafficking. The country is on the second tier of fighting trafficking on the global index,” he said.
Olufemi stated that the training is to create inter agency synergy between organisations in ensuring the issues of human trafficking are tackled effectively.
He noted that to effectively fight trafficking, actors must listen and learn from survivors, adding that the key words are prevention, protection and prosecution.
“We must ensure that victims are not re-trafficked and re-victimised. Human trafficking is a gross violation of human right,” he said.
The NACTAL chairman listed factors responsible for people falling victims to trafficking to include unemployment, insecurity, banditry and war.
He appealed to government at all tiers to take ownership and work in synergy with various international organisations in war against human trafficking, adding that donor fatigue is already setting. (NAN)
