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Akwa Ibom State is now leading in human trafficking and child labour, beating Edo State to the second place. Executive Secretary, National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP), Barrister Carol Ndaguba, identified the type of trafficking in AkwaIbom State to include, internal trafficking for sexual exploitation, child trafficking for labour exploitation and child abuse. Ndaguba said this at a sensitisation workshop in human trafficking, organised by the Ministry of Cooperation and Integration in Africa, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, yesterday. She said statistics from Uyo zonal office of NAPTIP alone showed that out of 104 victims rescued in the last quarter of the year, 53 were from Akwa Ibom state. "It is sad that most of the Akwa Ibom girls rescued were used for prostitution in Lagos, and that most of the brothels in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Sokoto, Calabar are habited by young girls from Akwa Ibom State," she said. Delivering a paper on the Importance of Education in Human Trafficking and Child Labour, as part of programmes to mark three years of NAPTIP, Ndagua noted that the victims and the young girls in the trafficking and prostitution business in Akwa Ibom state were predominant from Oron, Mbo, Eket, Esit Eket, Ibesikpo and Uyo local government areas just to mention a few. According to him, most of the victims in NAPTIP, Uyo zonal office do not have formal education up to the University/ Polytechnic level, adding, "most of them are primary or secondary school drop outs". She tasked all stakeholders on the fight against human trafficking, child labour, child trafficking and abuse to unite as one so as to fight the battle with verve in all the local government areas of Akwa Ibom state. Mrs. Ndaguba also called on all the council chairmen and their spouse in the state to partner with NAPTIPto carry out sensitization programs on the evils of human trafficking in the society. "We equally need state government, ministries, corporate bodies, oil companies, NGOs, FBOs, CBOs, schools and the mass media to educate our people that we can no longer pretend that human trafficking is not in Akwa Ibom state neither can we continue to over look girls/children who are the future (mothers) of our country being exploited and abused", she declared. The Minister of Cooperation and Integration in Africa, Senator Lawan Gana Guba had earlier noted that the porous borders and desperately poor economic conditions in West Africa pushed young persons to migrate to neighbouring countries in search of greener pastures. "The negative effects of poverty, exacerbated by political instability and mismanagement of the economy in the past have had the consequence of human right violations, in the form of an increasing number of children of both sexes, able bodied men and women being forced into bondage by traffickers, organized in complex international networks", the Minister stressed. He said, to a greater degree, all ECOWAS member states are affected by this heinous crime, particularly trafficking for forced labour and sex industry which caused the authority of Heads of states and governments of ECOWAS to adopt a Plan of Action against trafficking in person in 2001. In the action plan, he said member states were expected to put in place effective legal and enforcement framework to penalize the enforcement the traffickers, sanction individual and organizations involved in trafficking, protect the victims, promote child friendly procedures with a view to securing testimonies that will aid the clampdown on their activities. He expressed delight that through the ECOWAS Plan of Action, the sub-region is achieving desired results with a high number of repatriation, arrests, and rehabilitation of victims and their reintegration. The Minister commended the Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation, a non-governmental organization for demonstrating full commitment to the cause of eradication human trafficking and child labour in the country and urged every Nigerian to join hands with NAPEIP in the campaign against the heinous crime and its total eradication.