Okowa Urged to Halt Girl-Child Trafficking in Delta

Ugo Aliogo

The President of Warri Boys Association, Lagos branch, Chief Godwin Okene, has called on the Delta State Government to immediately halt the spate of girl-child trafficking in the state.

Okene made this call after rising from the association’s meeting in Lagos, saying the association had been receiving incessant complaints from indigenes of the state bordering on the activities of girl-child trafficking cartels who have invaded the state with the sole aim of luring innocent under-aged girls to Lagos and foreign countries under the guise of providing jobs only for the girls to be used for prostitution
Okene, in company of High Chief Vincent Ogheneochuko Ahwi, (OSU IV), the Osu Urhobo of Lagos State and Chairman of Urhobo Traditional Council of Chiefs in Lagos, who was also on a courtesy visit to the organisation, said the association attention is currently been drawn to a case of some under-aged girls who were lured from Aladja village, in Udu Local Government, Delta State to Lagos by one of the cartels without the parents consent for prostitution in Lagos.

According to him, the girls who are between the ages of 14 to 16 years were intercepted by the President, Urhobo Progressive Union (UPU), Youth Wing, Lagos, Austin Ojameruaye.

The matter was immediately reported to Layeni Police Station in Ajegunle and was subsequently transferred to the state police command for thorough investigation.

The Warri Boys president therefore called on Okowa to do everything possible to nip the nefarious activities of these human trafficking cartels in the bud to save the future of theyoung girls.

He said it was clear that these cartel have moved from other states of the federation to Delta State, adding that their activities must be brought to a halt before greater damage is done to the state.

Okene also said the association is ready to partner the state government to attract foreign aid to fast track infrastructural development in the state as it is being done in some other states of the federation
He thanked the Urhobo Progressive Union in Lagos for their good work and appealed that Deltans should close rank in their bid to eliminate these cartels from the state.

The Warri Boys Association is an advocacy and a social group working towards the economic growth and peaceful development in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.