THE Akwa Ibom State government has said that the high rate of child trafficking for undignified labour is portraying the state in a bad light
The state deputy governor, Mr Moses Ekpo, raised the concern when the newly posted state Comptroller of Immigration, George Didel, paid him a courtesy visit in his office at Government House, Uyo.
In a statement by his press secretary, Mr Ekikere Umoh, on Saturday, the deputy governor expressed the government’s readiness to collaborate with the Nigeria Immigration Service to stem the tide of illegal migration and unbridled human trafficking along its vast borders.
According to Ekpo, “Trafficking of innocent Akwa Ibom people out of the state for undignified labor and other criminal purposes was an issue of critical concern to the state government.
“The governor has been very generous and very keen on anything that touches on the fabrics of the lives of the people, and the issue of illegal migration of the people into servitude, does not give us a good image and does not help the young people who at the end of the day may be victimized or killed”.
He warned indigenes of the state to “avoid all forms of illegal migration and take due advantage of the new ECOWAS travelling cards provided by the Immigration Service for their cross-border trading”.
While commending NIS for taking proactive steps towards ensuring that people does not take advantage of the hospitable nature of the state to commit evil, Ekpo charged the agency to deploy available manpower to patrol the waterways to curb illegal movements.
Didel , who was accompanied by his management team, said the visit was to solicit the support and assistance of the government to enable the state command to perform its duties effectively.
He disclosed that the service was severely hampered in covering the state’s vast coastline with just one patrol boat and appealed to the state government to assist the service with additional boats and other logistics.
He said, “There is a high level of migration and trafficking of people through the coastline of the state, and this informed our decision to tour the entire state and meet with the locals and relevant authorities to discourage the trend”.
He said the ECOWAS travelling card was an innovation by the service to enable people to have valid entry into countries within the West African sub-region.
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