National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has expressed confidence that with continued sensitisation of the public, the tide of human trafficking in Delta would drop significantly.
The Commander, NAPTIP Benin Zonal Command, Mr Sam Offiah, stated this in an interview with the reporters yesterday in Asaba.
He spoke after sensitising and inaugurating the Students Vanguard at the Osadenis High School and West End Mixed Secondary school, in Asaba.
Offiah said the NAPTIP would continue to monitor and sensitise the 10 schools inaugurated in Delta, including the students, teachers and the Parent Teachers Association (PTA) among other stakeholders on issues of human trafficking.
According to him, the tide of human trafficking in Delta will drop because the traffickers are now aware that it is no longer business as usual for them in the state.
He said that the NAPTIP and Delta State Taskforce Against Human Trafficking and Irregular Migrations aimed at bringing down the statistics which placed Delta at third place in terms of human trafficking ranking.
Offiah said that the task force was on ground to nip the crime in the bud, and expressed belief that the menace would be minimised in the near future.
He lauded the responses and the supports from the students, principals, teachers and all the stakeholders during the first phase of the sensitisation programme in the 10 selected school in the state.
“We have successfully inaugurated 30 students in each of the 10 secondary schools as Anti-Trafficking and Violence Against Persons Vanguard in Delta, ‘’ he said.
Offiah expressed satisfaction for setting up the students vanguard, saying that programme was achieved in collaboration with the ICMPD, (International Centre for Migration Policy Development) and the support of the Delta State Ministry of Education.
The Zonal commander urged the vanguards to live above board, shun peer group pressure to make money illegally and avoid being victims of trafficking, adding that the first phase of the project had ended.
He also urged them not to allow themselves to be deceived, but to study their books and develop themselves.
Offiah appealed to the students to become ambassadors of NAPTIP and urged the teachers and all stakeholders to assist in fighting the crime as the agency would not do it alone.
Speaking also, Mrs Ijoma David-Ukoko, Project Officer, School Anti-Trafficking Education and Advocacy Project (STEAP/ICMPD, stated that the STEAP, collaborating with NAPTIP and Delta State Taskforce and Ministry of Education would reduce trafficking.
She urged the students to sensitise their families, friends and associates and to work together with NAPTIP to eliminate human trafficking in the state.
Also Mr Mackeans Eze, Deputy Director, Ministry of Education, charged the students to be guided and to speak out whenever they notice any form of trafficking or violence in the school, home or their environment.
He pledged the ministry’s commitment to sustain the students vanguard and sensitisation against human trafficking in the state.
According to him, Delta is number three in Human trafficking index in Nigeria.
He said that with the ongoing campaign, the students, as the most vulnerable group, had been sensitised to resist the traffickers and expose them.
Mrs Ijoma Nwanze, Secretary, Delta State Taskforce on Human Trafficking and Irregular Migrations, thanked NAPTIP for the schools sensitisation programme.
She said that the state government had been supportive as he had put laws in place to check and punish traffickers in the state.(NAN)
