The Rivers State Response Team on Violence Against Women & Children, have called for parental vigilance and closer communication with children, as schools shutdown for long holiday in the State.
The Team while also decrying the alarming surge in cases of sexual exploitation and abuse of women and children, cautioned fresh graduates and school leavers against being desperate, but to be creative and diligent as they enter the larger society, saying desperation to attain new and visioned status has made many to be victims of human trafficking, organ harvesting, as well as sexual Exploitation and abuse.
Tombari Dumka-Kote, Coordinator, Rivers State Response Team on Violence Against Women and Children, and Secretary, Rivers State Anti-Human Trafficking Taskforce, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen today at the 28th National Stakeholders Consultative Forum/Summit on Trafficking in Persons, at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Dumka-Kote who hinted that the NSCF which is the highest National Policy Meeting to Combat Human Trafficking in Nigeria, is held annually as part of activities to Commemorate the ‘World Day Against Trafficking in Persons’, celebrated on the 30th of July every year, noted that a sustained joint campaign by stakeholders against the activities of traffickers has become necessary, as human trafficking is an organized crime against humanity.
According to the Response Team Coordinator, no Human is immune from the negative effects of the activities of traffickers, hence the need for a collective and joint action by all.
Dumka-Kote while referencing the shocking increase in trafficking for forced prostitution, transactional sex, child Labour, sexual exploitation and abuse as contained in the 2025 National Counter Trafficking Report (January – June), said the situation in Rivers State is not different, as more children, teenage girls and women are facing serious exploitation and abuse, at home and work places by some relatives, supposed guardians and even traffickers.
‘The way out of this messy situation is for parents and guardians to adopt preventive approach of engaging in self education on signs of exploitation and abuse, improving communication with their children, staying involved in the life of their children, ensuring children are in custody of trusted individuals, trust their instincts, monitor children online activities, encourage communication, screening caregivers properly, and seeking help immediately when needed ‘, Dumka-Kote stated.
Also in a separate interview with reporters in Port Harcourt, Queeneth Igbara, Programme Officer at Centre for Justice, Empowerment & Development, said human trafficking is a organized crime that affects families, especially children and women who face sexual Exploitation and abuse.
She harped on the need for families to guide their children against abusers and persons whose sole aim is exploitation of vulnerable members of the society, assuring of the support of her organization and the State Anti-Human Trafficking Taskforce in working together with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) to address all reported cases of trafficking, child Labour, and exploitation within the State.
Our sensitization campaign on ‘Zero Tolerance for Human Trafficking and Gender Based Violence in the State is on, and we are going to reach every nook and cranny of the State’.
The theme for the 2025 World Day Against Human Trafficking is; Human Trafficking is Organized Crime – End the Exploitation.
Queeneth Igbara
(Communication/Public Enlightenment officer)
