Reasons have been articulated as to why Cross River, a sub-national entity in Nigeria’s south-southern geo-political zone, has been labelled to have very high incidence of human trafficking NEGROIDHAVEN can report authoritatively.
This disclosure was made by the office of the Head of Operations at the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Cross River state.
Addressing some journalists recently in Calabar the state capital metropolis during a civil society engagement on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence SGBV, Sexual Reproductive and Health Rights SRHR, and Health Promotion HR organised by WACOL, Oba Jacob the head of operations of the organisation in the state, explained that there are three reasons why the state is susceptible to high incidences of trafficking.
According to him, the reasons are that Cross River is a source state, it is also a transit state and finally it is a destination state. He further noted that more often than not, victims end up in prostitution across the world due to human trafficking.
Explaining his assertion, Jacob observed that ‘Of a truth, the rate (of trafficking) is very, very high; reason being that Cross River, just like Nigeria as a country is, is a source state where traffickers source for their traffic victims.
‘Cross River is also a transit state where when they traffic some of these persons they pass them across the state. For the fact that we boundary other countries like Equitorial Guinea, the Cameroon, so, most times when they move them, they will want to take them from here to Malabor, and move them out of the sea of the country.
‘And it equally serve as a destination state too because some persons go to the rural areas and bring out these victims, they tell them they want to give them a job, they use them for domestic work, unfortunately most of these children end up in brothels; because of these three factors, I would say Cross River is endemic state for trafficking, it is very high,’ he concluded.
The state NAPTIP head of operations informed that in 2022, his organisation secured two convictions. He was also convinced that they will secure four other convictions within the first quarter of 2023.
EDITORIAL
This story amongst others are reviewed on Sparkling 92.3FM http://mixlr.com/sparkling923fm–2 and FAD 93.1FM. Again, opinions expressed on NegroidHaven are exclusively the author’s not NH’s.
