The government of Plateau State has promised to prosecute anyone who is discovered to be involved in child trafficking in any of the state’s 17 Local Government Areas.
Musa Ashoms, the State Commissioner for Information, announced this on Thursday in Jos.. Ashoms emphasized that no area of the state would tolerate such illegal activity.
The Commissioner was speaking in response to a development involving 39 children from Plateau State who were trafficked to Abuja and other areas of the nation but were located and returned to their home state last week.
Ashoms revealed that a few cartel members engaged in the illegal activity had been taken into custody by security personnel and were being investigated further.
The Commissioner stated that even though 39 of the children who were trafficked were brought back to the state, additional research found that three victims remained unaccounted for and were not connected to the traffickers.
He explained further, “There is a cartel in Plateau State that links up with parents to traffic their children to Abuja and other parts of the country.
“As we speak, we have a woman from Barkin Ladi LGA and some of her accomplices in custody.
“So far, we have brought back 39 of the trafficked children, but three children have still not been accounted for, and we don’t know whether they were sold or not.”
Ashoms, who described the activities of the child traffickers as wicked, added, “During our investigation, we got to a point where we discovered that they sold a male child for N200,000 and a female child for N150,000. That is the height of wickedness, and it is very painful. In our investigation, we realised that parents even wrote an agreement that they would never come after their children after handing them over to the traffickers. You see children between the ages of four and eight in orphanages when their parents are still alive.
“Some of them operate illicit orphanage homes, and they claim to love these children when, in reality, they are engaged in child trafficking. We also realised that the owners of these orphanages get rewarded by foreign donors because they are doing a great job, not knowing that the opposite is the case.
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“So, as a government, we frown against parents leaving their children in the care of people they don’t know. It’s quite painful that we are going through such an experience.
“As a government, we continue to educate our people on the need for them to train their children. They should not release their children to people they do not have a connection with because a lot of things happen in between.
“From our investigation, we realised that these children’s names were changed and their surnames changed as well because they want them to forget their ancestry completely. We saw a boy from Plateau whose name and state were changed because they wanted him and the others to forget where they came from so that in the coming years, they become people nobody knows. These are some of the issues we have detected.”
Consequently, the Commissioner was able to persuade the state’s many religious organizations and traditional institutions, together with other relevant parties, to organize around ways to address the issue.
In addition, he cautioned parents against turning over their wards or children to strangers for training on their behalf, no matter how difficult the situation may be, as this could result in child trafficking. Instead, parents should make every effort to train their children on their own.
“We want to thank the Ministry for Women Affairs and Social Development for going all the hug in the repatriation of the 39 trafficked children back to the state, even as he stressed the need for those living in the neighborhood to be vigilant.
“The community members should ask questions about one another from time to time. We know we are living in a challenging time, but how does selling your child solve the problem?
“Again, trafficking these children is difficult because it is easier for the parents to do so than for the government to do so. But we won’t allow any form of children trafficking in the state.
“So,the police and other law enforcement agents are still investigating the matter, and as soon as we get more reports on it, we will make it known to members of the public.
“But, what the government is doing right now is to repatriate these children from the orphanage homes
“As a government, we will continue to engage the traditional institutions, religious bodies, as well as parents on how to address these problems but those who are engaged in this illegal activities might be few but anyone found to be engaged in child trafficking or child labour or whatever name it is called will be prosecuted by this administration accordingly,” the commissioner threatened.
