Over 20,000 Edo and Delta girls in Mali for prostitution says NAPTIP

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) claims about 20,000 trafficked women from Edo and Delta States are presently into prostitution in Mali.

NAPTIP’s Benin Zonal Commander, Nduka Nwanwenne, revealed this Thursday at Okpekpe, Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo, during the area’s campaign “I’m not for sale.”

Nwanwenne said that while trafficking in human beings was a worldwide problem, latest statistics revealed that in Edo and Delta it was more common.

Also, while there were other reasons for human trafficking, the zonal commander in charge of Edo and Delta said prostitution was the most prevalent.

He said about 50 women of Etsako extraction had been returned from other nations to Nigeria since 2004 when NAPTIP was formed in the state.

Mr Nwanwenne further revealed that the recent angle to human trafficking was organ harvesting.

He said there was a need for child and youth protection in perspective of this.

The zonal commander who also said trafficking in human beings took place internationally and locally revealed that the agency would raid suspected hotels in the state where the act took place in the next few weeks.

He said that for some moment now the agency had set its searchlight on hotels in the area and had a list of suspects.

Meanwhile, Okpekpe’s Ughwuede, Blessing Eshilama, and NAPTIP’s partner on the awareness program said that women’s trafficking was a modern type of slavery.

Mrs Eshilama also said that the existing literature showed that trafficking in human beings thrived in the nation as a consequence of deep-rooted system failure.

She stressed the pressing need to avoid trafficking in human beings and the sexual exploitation of young people and kids, particularly girls.

“The life of every Okpekpe son and daughter matters; no Okpekpe indigene should fall for the tricks these human traffickers employ,” she said.