The Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Hajia Binta Bello, has called on secondary school principals in Ogun State to actively participate in the fight against human trafficking. Speaking at a two-day training session in Abeokuta on Thursday, she emphasized the critical role educators play in curbing this grave crime.
Hajia Bello highlighted human trafficking as the world’s second most lucrative transnational organized crime after drug trafficking, generating an estimated $150 billion annually. “Ogun State is one of the endemic states for this criminal act,” she said, stressing the urgency for school administrators to embrace NAPTIP’s initiatives to tackle the menace.
Represented by NAPTIP’s Director of Research and Programme Development, Mr. Josiah Emerole, the DG addressed 50 selected principals who also serve as Coordinators of Anti-Trafficking Vanguard Clubs in their schools. The training, held in partnership with the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), aimed to deepen participants’ understanding of human trafficking issues and mobilize them for proactive engagement.
Hajia Bello warned against underestimating the severity of human trafficking, describing it as “a great evil that has led to the death of many young people and destroyed the lives of several others.” She explained that many victims are school-age children, some of whom may already be in their schools without detection. “After this training, you will be able to identify those victims in your schools and see how you can support them,” she said.
She further explained the dual nature of trafficking in Ogun State: internal trafficking, which involves moving victims from rural areas to urban centers, and external trafficking, where victims are trafficked outside Nigeria. “There are many quarries in Ogun where many children are brought in to break stones, most of these children are trafficked,” she revealed.
The NAPTIP DG urged principals to work closely with the agency to detect and prevent trafficking early, stating, “Our working with you will help us a lot to check human trafficking within our schools because what we are doing is to catch them young from school age so that they also have the knowledge and be able to know when the criminals are around them.”
Rhoda Dia-Johnson, Project Manager for the School Anti-Trafficking Education and Advocacy Project (STEAP) at ICMPD, lamented the continued prevalence of trafficking among school children. “As principals and coordinators of anti-human trafficking in schools, you are not just educators, you are frontline defenders of children’s rights,” she stated. Dia-Johnson underscored the importance of schools as safe environments where exploitation can be identified and children encouraged to speak up.
The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology in Ogun State, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, represented by the Director of Education Support Service, Akinola Okereafor, reaffirmed the ministry’s commitment to global anti-trafficking efforts. He highlighted the integration of Safe School Child Protection Policies and Psychosocial Support Frameworks into the state’s education system. “Schools are not only centres of learning but incubators of values, identity, and resilience,” he said, urging principals to vigilantly observe signs of abuse and behavioral changes among students.
Okay.ng reports that this collaborative training marks a significant step in mobilizing educational leaders to safeguard children and combat human trafficking in Ogun State.
