BY ONORIODE ETATSEMI
HUMAN trafficking and the menace it poses to society would soon be a thing of the past in Delta State as government positions to pull through with tough sanctions to serve as deterrent.
Disclosing this in Asaba, the State capital, the State’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ekemejero Ohwovoriole, SAN, said that the Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori’s administration was set to do everything humanly possible to reduce the activities of human trafficking in the state to the barest minimum, if not totally eliminated.
Ohwovoriole made the revelation in his office when the Zonal Commander of National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Benin, Mr. Aganran Alao paid him a courtesy visit.
He said that the law to empower officials to deal with the menace was at the final stage at the State House of Assembly, adding that public hearing on the law had been carried out.
He stated that the law was designed to compound issues for human traffickers, stressing that as part of the recommendations of the law, properties of offenders of human trafficking would be applied to the benefits of the victim.
He described as worrisome, the reports and indications from NAPTIP that Delta State has overtaken Edo State as the number TIP was a Federal Government agency created in 2003 by an Act of the National Assembly to fight human trafficking in the country.
He listed other functions of the agency to include fighting against extortion, online crime, and scamming, among others.
He said that the agency was mandated with the powers to arrest and prosecute offenders of human trafficking and confiscate their assets, emphasizing that it had the power to cease their properties.
While saying that the agency has the power to rescue, rehabilitate, and integrate the survivors into the society, he disclosed that the survivors of the crime were their major consideration.
He appealed to the Ministry of Justice to assist them with office accommodation in Asaba.
