A social advocacy group, Action Against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants in Nigeria, A-TIPSOM, in collaboration with the Network Against Child Trafficking Abuse and Labour, NACTAL, Anambra State, has called for intensified fight against all forms of human trafficking and abuse.
The groups made the call at a-three-day sensitization campaign on human trafficking and smuggling of migrants, held in Awka.
Correspondent Onyinye Agubaeze reports that in an address, the National President of NACTAL, Mr. Abdulganiyu Abubakar, represented by Mrs. Lilian Ezenwa, while listing poverty, hardship and unemployment as major causes of trafficking in person, described the evil act as a crime against humanity.
Mr. Abubakar, who emphasized the need to always follow the right immigration procedure, said that the stakeholder’s forum was aimed at rubbing minds together on ways of combating the negative trend, beginning from Anambra State.
In a welcome address, the Anambra State Coordinator of NACTAL, Mrs. Eucharia Onyemaobi said that despite the constant fight against the crime, perpetrators have continued to strive by changing their mode of operation.
She noted that in order to end the menace permanently, it is necessary to kick-start from the community level so as to dismantle the foundation of the criminal enterprise.
On her part, the Anambra State Commander of National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Person, NAPTIP, Mrs. Judith Ibadi, who lamented the high rate of human trafficking and abuse in the state, noted that one of the necessary measures to prevent the menace is stiffer punishment for offenders. UPSOT
Others, who spoke at the exercise, included Mr. Ifeanyi Okonkwo representing Nigeria Immigration Services, Comrade Stella Igboka, Vice President, Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ Zone C, DSC Stephen Okoye representing Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, among others.