By Victor Akinkuolie, Ado-Ekiti
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The Ekiti State Government, has tasked the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and other Related Matters (NAPTIP) on the imperative of tackling the menace of human trafficking in the state in order to protect the dignity of Ekiti citizens.
The state government urged NAPTIP to spread its dragnets and track down those who are plotting to make Ekiti one of the locations of their dubious deals which is an infringement on human rights and indignation to victims.
Ekiti State Commissioner for Youth Development, Mr Adesola Gold Adedayo, said this while playing host to the leadership of NAPTIP who paid a visit to his office in Ado Ekiti.
Addressing the officers of the federal government’s agency, Adedayo said the government of Governor Biodun Oyebanji categorised human trafficking as part of violence against citizens, which he stated had been prohibited by the law of Ekiti State.
Adedayo revealed that many victims of trafficking were being dangerously exposed to exploitation, prostitution, slavery and other nefarious acts that often subject them to all manners of harrowing experiences, deaths and untold sufferings.
The Commissioner added that the most pathetic is the fact that those falling victims are majorly children of school age and those from less privileged backgrounds.
Adedayo warned that Governor Oyebanji won’t spare whoever is caught in the web of such unwholesome and criminal act in the state, saying they will be made to face the full weight of the law.
“Most worrisome of this occurrence is the fact that the traffickers operate like syndicates. They have their rings in some of the states.
In 2022, the Nigerian Immigration Service raised the alarm over attempt by human traffickers to make Ekiti one of the transit states.”
In his submission, the NAPTIP Head of Operations, Ekiti office, Mr. Samson Ademola Oladimeji, praised the government of Governor Oyebanji for partnering with the agency to nab traffickers and make Ekiti unsafe for their syndicates.
Oladimeji added that the agency was incurably committed to partner other sister agencies, particularly the operatives of the immigration service to bring the incidences of trafficking in persons to the lowest ebb in the state.
