Edo to set up task force to tackle human trafficking

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Thursday said the state government would set up a special task force to fight human trafficking and the inordinate desire to travel overseas by younger generation.
Obaseki made the promised when he declared open the fourth Edo Women’s Conference in Benin City, the state capital. The conference is organised by Edo Women’s Development Initiative (EWDI), a non-governmental organisation.
He said the special task force would be headed by Yinka Omoregbe, the state attorney general and commissioner for justice, and would be backed up by security operatives.
“We are setting up a special task force on anti-trafficking. My attorney general will head the task force. We are in touch with security agencies to give us a special crack team that will support the task force.
“Our politicians have refused to talk about it (trafficking) because it has large economic impact. We move around the city and you see young girls popping their heads from buildings and they say they are learning hair dressing, some of them are recruitment centres,” he said.
He however berated the political class who he said refused to publicly condemn the craze for travelling abroad.
The governor opined that with support from the World Bank, his administration was already reconstructing the Benin Technical College, while other technical colleges in the state would be renovated to promote technical and vocational studies to engage young people.
In her keynote address titled, “Trafficking within the global context; Nigeria as a country of origin, transit and destination,” he lamented that 60 percent of the over 800,000 illegal immigrants, as at two years ago, are Nigerians and 80 percent of the number are from Edo State.
Esohe, an anti-trafficking activist, also disclosed that there were 26 unidentified graves of African immigrants in the city of Catania, in Libya, and that the mayor of the city told her that he believed most of them were Nigerians.
“Our youths do not have focus again, they want to make money by all means,” she said.
Earlier in her welcome address, the chairperson EWDI, Yinka Omorogbe, said the group was formed by women of like minds who were interested in the development of Edo women through various outreaches, like town hall meetings, health services, advocacies, and others.

 
IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, BENIN