The National Human Rights Commission [NHRC], the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP and the International Organisations on Migration on Wednesday took the Anti-human tracking campaign to the University of Lagos (UNILAG ).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the campaign was part of the activities marking the 2021 International Day Against Human Trafficking.
It came in the form of a road walk, with the organisers saying they chose UNILAG as their starting point because of the population of the students there.
A correspondent of NAN who covered the walk said that it started from the Faculty of Law, and moved to the University’s main gate at Akoka and went into Bariga areas.
According to the correspondent, the organisers enlightened the public through the public address system and sharing hand bills.
Mr Lucas Koyejo, the NHRC Coordinator in Lagos State, told NAN on the sidelines that an institution of higher learning was an ideal place to start the walk due to the vulnerability of students to human trafficking.
Koyejo said that there was the need for regular enlightenment on the dangers of human trafficking on campuses, stressing that many students were being lured into trafficking every time with promises that never came to reality.
He advised the students to be careful of those inviting them to come abroad for greener pastures, stressing that they might be human traffickers.
Dr Iyabode Ogunniran, an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law in the institution, said that the menace of human trafficking was worrisome and, therefore, called for more enlightenment against it in schools.
She said that the anti-human trafficking legal hub in the university had involved students in the campaign against the menace.
She stressed that the legal team was ready with the right counsel for students with complaints against the crime in the institution.
The don said that the students were involved in the campaign so as to be positioned for the future where they could take up the battle against human trafficking themselves.
Ogunniran noted that while she was a student at the school, many of her mates were disappearing and re- appearing with sums of money received from alleged traffickers.
“I was a student who graduated from UNILAG. When I was there as a student, many of my mates would just disappear and later, we would see them returning with plenty money and other things”.
She said that some of them were not that lucky because when they allegedly disappeared with the traffickers, their organs were usually harvested. Others would go into prostitution while we never knew the whereabouts of others.
“We see it happen every time, hence , our collaboration with other organisations to bring the campaign to our students and the communities around us so that they will be aware of the dangers in human trafficking,” she said. [NAN]
