12 July 2008
LAGOS State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) at the weekend called on men and women of good conscience to rise up and prevent the entrenchment of another slave trade in the form of human trafficking almost two hundred years after the heinous act was abolished worldwide.
The Governor who spoke at Alausa Oval office while receiving the Executive Secretary of the National Agency Against Traffick in Persons and Other Related Offences, Mrs Carol Ndaguba, on a courtesy visit implored all parents to be vigilant about whom they entrust their children.
Governor Fashola added that now is the time for the government to provide education that is free and accessible to all people towards stemming the tide as it has become the stock in trade for those who recruit unsuspecting victims in to the trade to lure them with promises of access to better education.
The governor said it was ironic that God created everyone free but some decided to take cruel and evil dominion over themselves in the form of humanity waging war against itself.
While advising that the task should not be left for the government alone, Governor Fashola charged all spiritual leaders, political leaders and all men of goodwill to rise up against the challenge of the impending second slavery.
He also called on brother governors and local government chairmen to do all within their powers to ensure that NAPTIP is given all the desired support to ensure that the modern slavery does not take root and flourish. The governor pledged the readiness of his administration to assist the agency in its onerous task of combating trafficking in humans but advised it to always keep the state informed of its various tasks and projects as the State is much more familiar with the terrain.
Earlier, the executive secretary of NAPTIP, Mrs Carol Ndaguba had informed the governor that over 2000 people have been rescued and rehabilitated at the Lagos shelter established by the agency in 2004 to take care of victims.
She commended the State Government for making provision for N100Million in this year's budget to build a home for victims of human trafficking, saying the action is unparallelled in any part of the nation. She lamented that the agency recently carried out raids on some brothels in Lagos where it arrested a number of under aged girls who were practicing prostitution and also HIV positive, saying many of them were victims of human trafficking.
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