Abeokuta: The Ogun Government has reaffirmed its commitment to combating human trafficking across the state.
The State Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, made this known on Thursday at a training organised by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for student vanguards in Abeokuta.
The commissioner, who was represented by the Director of Education Support Services, Mrs Mary Akinola, stated that the state government would continue to explore all necessary avenues to address the menace.
The training is funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development in collaboration with NAPTIP.
Arigbabu stressed that schools remained the first line of defence for students, serving as more than just centres of academic learning.
” The schools are incubators of values, Identities and resilience. Hence, education managers, principals, teachers are first adults outside the home to observe signs of abuse, vulnerability or behavioural changes,” he said.
The Director of Research and Programme Development at the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Mr Josiah Emerole, raised concern over the rising cases of human trafficking in Ogun. Emerole said the state’s vulnerability to crime was due to its multiple borders and their porousity.
He called for increased reporting of human trafficking cases to strengthen international collaboration in the fight against the menace.
Emerole explained that the training aimed to equip school leaders with adequate knowledge on human trafficking so they could effectively educate and sensitise their students.
He emphasised that Nigerian youths were invaluable and not for sale, adding that NAPTIP had successfully rescued over 25,000 young people from traffickers.
“The victims have been sent back to schools or empowered with businesses,” he said
Mrs Rhoda Dig–Johnson, the Nigeria Project Manager for the School Anti-Trafficking Education and Advocacy Project (STEAP), said the project would mobilise all efforts to create a conducive environment to prevent human trafficking.
