Human trafficking “out of control” in Nigeria
It is now estimated that one million Nigerian children are sold into internal and external slavery every year. One of Nigeria’s leading experts on human trafficking, Professor Sola Ehindero, says that the trade in human beings, particularly children, is so pervasive and growing so fast that it threatens to “derail the national economy”.
“People have under-estimated the magnitude of trafficking,” a worried Professor Ehindero warned the nation in an interview with Next on Sunday, saying that no fewer than five million children in the country are today prone to be trafficked within and outside the country.
Ehindero said “Studies carried out in the Northern Region shows that about 10 million children are exploited by traffickers under the Almajiri system” and that in Kano alone, “we have about three million children, while in Lagos, there are about one million children who are vulnerable to being exploited by traffickers.”
Ehindero’s records are matched by other findings that speak of an alarming growth in the rate of child slavery in Nigeria. The current findings of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre, in the United Kingdom, indicate that Nigeria is now only second to China in the trafficking of children into the United Kingdom.
Nigeria and Italy have signed a co-operative agreement to fight international slavery. Nigerian police will work side-by-side with Italian authorities at Italian border points to help identify and apprehend human traffickers and rescue their victims.
[...] SLAVE TRADE: Human trafficking “out of control” in Nigeria …. [...]