The Enugu State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Kingsley Udeh, has reiterated the commitment of the government to prosecute human traffickers in the state.
According to him, the commitment is in line with Governor Peter Mbah’s mission of ridding the state of human traffickers and making Enugu the preferred destination for investment, business, tourism and habitation.
Udeh, who is also the State’s Chief Law Officer, stated in Enugu on Monday that he would work with security and law enforcement agencies to ensure that owners of unapproved orphanage homes and brothels used as conduits for human trafficking were exposed and prosecuted.
Udeh stated this during an advocacy meeting he held with the Enugu Zonal Commander, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Mr Sam Offiah, and his team.
He urged the agency to strengthen the State Task Force Against Human Trafficking, which he chairs, to deal decisively with the menace, and urged relevant stakeholders to draw up an action plan to optimise the performance of the task force.
The commissioner maintained that Mbah’s administration would not tolerate trading in human persons or human organs in any form.
He warned that anyone caught would be punished, adding that he would issue a fiat to NAPTIP to enable it to prosecute human traffickers under the state law.
Earlier, the NAPTIP Zonal Commander, Offiah, said the agency had a shelter where victims taken from abusive homes and brothels were kept until they were integrated back into society, saying sheltering victims of human trafficking was part of the agency’s mandate.
He appealed to the commissioner to assist the agency in securing a decent accommodation, as they currently stay in a rented apartment, unconducive and insufficient for its operations.
Offiah enumerated other challenges affecting the smooth operations of the federal agency in the state to include lack of logistics (such as vehicles) and operational resources for its running of the agency.
