The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), on Tuesday in Asaba, renewed campaign strategy against human trafficking in Delta.

Binta Adamu-Bello, director-general NAPTIP, formally flagged off a two-day awareness and capacity raising workshop for school principals, vanguard coordinators and education administrators.

According to her, the workshop was to equip participants on the use of the tools for the implementation of TIPVAP  Vanguards Under the School Anti-Trafficking Education and Advocacy Project (STEAP).

The programme was organised by NAPTIP in collaboration with ICMPD implementing STEAP in Delta State.

The project is being funded by the Government of the Netherlands.

Ms Adamu-Bello, represented by Josiah Emerole, director of intelligence of research and programme development department of NAPTIP, said the workshop was to raise the participants’ awareness on issues of human trafficking and how to deal with it.

She said the fight against human trafficking should be a collective one and not to be left for government agencies alone.

She said that 50 secondary schools have been selected in Delta, and that each school would have NAPTIP Students Vanguards to continue with the sensitisation against human trafficking in the state.

She said the workshop would help build the stakeholders capacity to coordinate the vanguards in their schools.

According to the NAPTIP boss, the target is to catch the children young, to educate and equip them with requisite knowledge to create awareness among the students and their families to enable them identify the red flags of trafficking.

“As principals and Vanguard coordinators, you owe the children responsibility to save them from becoming victims of the traffickers.

“Also, as principals and teachers, what we are doing here today is also for you, you can be trafficked as a teacher, principal or parent by the traffickers for forced labour, sex or for organ harvesting.

“A few years ago, NAPTIP with ICMPD infused trafficking in persons issues in the curriculum of basic and secondary school education in Nigeria.

“Now to further that, we began to set up clubs in schools called Vanguards in secondary schools and Brigades in Primary schools.”

She, however, disclosed that the agency has so far rescued and reintegrated into the society no fewer than 26,000 victims while 700 persons have been convicted by the agency.

Also, Rhoda Johnson, project manager, International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD)- STEAP project, said that the project’s target was to ensure children are safe and less vulnerable in society.

She noted that the training was aimed at sustaining awareness, strengthening collaboration and Understanding of issues of trafficking and how to report trafficking in persons.

” The STEAP project have other components but what we are doing now is being implemented by NAPTIP which is to inaugurate vanguards in 50 schools in Delta state and other four states where we are implementing the project.

“The aim of the STEAP project is to strengthen awareness, enhance stakeholders capacity and collaboration with Civil Society Organisations to prevent trafficking among school age children.

” The STEAP project is for four years, we started it in 2024 and it will end in 2027. We are collaborating with government and it is part of the sustainability plan, so that when the project is ended as per funding by the government of the Netherlands, the state government could carry on.

“We also expect the government to replicate the school vanguards in other schools and communities.

“That is why we are working with NAPTIP which is saddled with the responsibility of inaugurating vanguards and it has been doing well and NAPTIP will do more now with funding,” Mr Johnson said.

In a remark, the state attorney – general and commissioner for justice, Ohwovoriole Ekemejero, represented by Ijoma Nwanze, secretary, state task force against human trafficking, lauded NAPTIP and ICMPD for the sustained fight against human trafficking in the state.

Also, the state commissioner for secondary education, Rose Ezewu, represented by Macleans Eze, desk officer, state task force against human trafficking and irregular migrations, said the workshop was apt.

“This workshop represents a crucial step in equipping our school  principals, vanguard coordinators and school administrators with the knowledge and tools necessary to protect our children from exploitation and abuse.”

In a lecture entitled, ”Understanding Human Trafficking,” director public enlightenment, NAPTIP, Kehinde Akomolafe, said traffickers deploy deception, isolation, debt bondage, fetish oaths to control their victims.

According to her, the traffickers are members of the family, friends and associates who are driven by inordinate ambition to make money.

No fewer than a hundred participants have so far been engaged to benefit from the workshop aimed at stemming the tide against human trafficking in Delta.

(NAN)